Etymological notes (XV) Cover Image

Etümoloogilisi märkmeid (XV)
Etymological notes (XV)

Author(s): Udo Uibo
Subject(s): Language studies, Lexis, Sociolinguistics, Finno-Ugrian studies, Translation Studies
Published by: SA Kultuurileht
Keywords: lexicology; etymology; Low German loans; translation loans; Estonian;

Summary/Abstract: The article discusses the origin of the Estonian words kada ‘slingshot’, (k)raejalad ‘horse, trestle’ and õnnar ‘coccyx’. The word kada is the result of shortening the word kadapulk, which in turn is a folk etymological transformation of katapult ‘catapult’. The meaning of ‘slingshot’ had been obtained by Katapult in German, which mediated the antique word to Estonian. The first component (k)rae- of the compound word (k)raejalad (jalad ‘legs’) is a borrowing from Middle Low German schrage ‘trestle with crossed legs’. The word õnnar ‘coccyx, tailbone’ is a Standard Estonian word obtained from the first component of the compound word õndrakont found in the Estonian-German dictionary by F. J. Wiedemann (1869), which in turn is probably an occasional recording of the dialect word (h)ändrukont ~ (h)ändrakont, the first component of which derives from the word händ ‘tail’.

  • Issue Year: LVII/2014
  • Issue No: 12
  • Page Range: 933-938
  • Page Count: 6
  • Language: Estonian
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