From the Greek word, I'd reconstruct Minoan1 *ɮabur 'fence, wall', with an initial voiced lateral represented as /d/ in Linear B. Seemingly related words are Etruscan spur 'city', Egyptian ʃzp(a) 'fence', Central Chadic *ɮabˁ- 'fence, to fence', Low East Cushitic (Afar) sabsab- 'wall' (reduplicative).
20 October 2025
The Labyrinth (updated)
From the Greek word, I'd reconstruct Minoan1 *ɮabur 'fence, wall', with an initial voiced lateral represented as /d/ in Linear B. Seemingly related words are Etruscan spur 'city', Egyptian ʃzp(a) 'fence', Central Chadic *ɮabˁ- 'fence, to fence', Low East Cushitic (Afar) sabsab- 'wall' (reduplicative).
13 March 2022
Etruscan φersu 'masked character (in games)' (updated)
Presumably related to this etymology is the Greek theonym Perséphonē (Etruscan Φersipnei, Latin Proserpina), attested on several Attic vases from the 5th century BC as Persóphatta, P(h)erséphatta, Pherréphatta. Rudolf Wachter analyzes it as a compound whose second member would be derived from Indo-European *-gʷhn-t-jā < *gʷhen- 'to beat, to kill', and the first one related to Sanskrit parṣá- 'sheaf, bundle', Young Avestan parša- 'ear (of corn)', to which Michael Weiss -in a personal communication to Wachter- also adds Latin porrum and Greek práson 'leek', from a supposed Indo-European lexeme *pr̥s-o-'3. Thus the reconstructed meaning of the theonym would be 'sheaf-beater', i.e. 'threshing maiden'4.
However, like most Indo-Iranian lexicon related to agriculture, *parš appears to be a substrate loanword from the language spoken by BMAC people5. On the other hand, for Slavic *proso- 'millet', Georg Holzer posited a loanword from a substrate language he called Temematic (Temematisch in German) after its proposed sound correspondences with PIE and where *r̥ > ro6. Although Holzer's theory has been discredited as a whole7 it could still explain the etymology of the Slavic word from IE *bhar(e)s 'a k. of cereal (millet, barley, spelt)' (Latin far, farris), a remnant of the languages spoken by the Neolithic farmers who colonized Europe from the Near East.
07 October 2016
Latin voltur 'vulture' (updated)
However, the Latin word is most likely a loanword from Etruscan velθur 'hawk, falcon', attested in the gentilic Velθur-na, which is likely associated to the city of Capua (cfr. capys 'hawk, falcon'). On the other hand, if the ancient toponyms Vulturnum (Castel Volturno) and Vulturnus (Volturno)2 are actually related to vultur, then we could add too Etruscan velθ 'underground, netherworld', velθu-na 'human', velθ-ra 'infernal tunnel' (Moretti) to this etymology, pointing to a Tyrrhenian protoform *wVrd- 'underground'.
This would be also the origin of Greek Ōrth(r)os, the name of an infernal dog, although from a different substrate language.
18 May 2016
Snake eyes (updated)
Although some amateur linguists have proposed links to either East Caucasian (Nakh-Daghestanian) or Hurrian, there're no obvious parallels elsewhere. However, Etruscan ci '3' is related (most likely due to borrowing) to Hurrian kig '3', a Hurro-Urartian isogloss shared with Nakh *qo-, with an optional suffix used for sheep counting. This is particulary interesting, because this numeral strongly resembles Daghestanian and West Caucasian (Abkhaz-Adyghe) '2' (NCED 2315)3, while at the same time both Hurro-Urartian and Nakh borrowed their numeral '2' from Semitic4.
As it happens, numerals aren't too much old (Neolithic at the most) and in many cases they're loanwords or even Wanderwörter4, so they're of little value for establishing distant language relationships.
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3 IE *dwo '2' is likely a loanword from West Caucasian.
4 Some Semitic numerals, namely '7', spread as such to IE and other language families.
09 July 2015
Etruscan viscri 'penis' (updated)
Italian (Tuscan) bischero 'peg (on a string instrument); fool, idiot' derives from Etruscan viscri 'penis', attested in a votive inscription: eti viscri ture Arnθ Alitle Pumpuś (TLE 685) '... gives this penis', engraved on a figure of a man offering his male organ found at Paterno di Vallombrosa (Arezzo).
Although many specialists have linked the Etruscan word to Latin vīscus, vīsceris 'entrails' (itself a word of problematic etymology), I think the latter would correspond to Etruscan visc 'center' (see here). In my opinion, viscri would be an Italic loanword akin to Latin virga 'twig, rod' (with rhotacism) < *wizg-ā, from a lexeme *wizg- also attested in Germanic *wiskō 'bundle, besom'. The semantic shift 'rod' > 'penis' also happened in Spanish verga < Latin virga.
24 June 2015
Basque ol(h)a 'forge, foundry'
I think the Basque word would be a loanword from Celtic *ordā (f.) 'hammer' (Middle Welsh orth, Breton orz)2, possibly through retroflexion of the dental stop (as in Sweden and Norwegian), which ultimately evolved into a lateral. However, as no plausible IE etymology can be posited for the Celtic word, a non-IE origin is likely. A likely cognate would be Etruscan urθan- 'to make, to manufacture', attested in the past form urθanice '(he) made'.
This way, we're left with a Tyrrhenian verbal root *ur-d- which I'd link on the one hand to IE *wer-g´- 'to work'3 (zero Ablaut), where IE *-g´- ~ Tyrrhenian *-d-, and on the other to Urartian ur-/or- 'to make, to work'4, which Diakonoff-Starostin4 relate in turn to Nakh-Daghestanian *=ahwV(r) 'to do' (NCED 1826).
2 There's also a masculine form *ordo- (Old Irish ord, Gaulish Ordo-). See R. Matasović (2009): Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic, p. 300.
3 Incidentally, the amateur linguist Gianfranco Forni (who regards Etruscan as an IE language) derives urθan from an IE participle *H3er-to- 'risen' < *H3er- 'to rise' (Latin orior). However, to me this is not only semantically questionable but also phonetically inconsistent, as it wouldn't explain the voiced stop in Celtic, of whose connection with the Etruscan verb he's of course unaware.
4 N. Diakonoff & S. Starostin (1986): Hurro-Urartian as an East Caucasian Language, §163.
05 August 2014
Gaulish *santikā 'ladle; milking vessel' (updated)
Gascon sanja, sansha, santja, sòntja, shansha, sancha, Aragonese sancha and dialectal Catalan sanxa (Cerdanya) designate a milking vessel carved in wood, often made by hollowing out a tree trunk1. On the other hand, dialectal Basque xantxa (L, Z), xaiñtxa (Z) designates a milking vessel with a long metal handle (kopetxa), and in the latter also 'ladle' (golhare), a meaning which in my opinion would be the original one2.
Although the Gaulish origin of this word seems undeniable, a Celtic etymology is more dubious. For example, Matasović proposes a Celtic femenine *sϕanjā corresponding to the masculine *sϕenjo- > Old Irish sine 'teat'3, in turn derived from IE *spen-, which is phonetically unacceptable, among other things because Celtic *sϕ- gives s- in Goidelic but f- in Britonic and probably also in Gaulish. For the same reason, Hubschmid's protoform *sand-ikā from IE *spn̥dh- 'bucket'4 can't be accepted, although Celtic *sϕondā would be the origin of Romansh s(u)onna 'bucket', probably a Lepontic loanword.




