Juuksed, naise uhkuse kroon Krunn
Hair, the crown of a woman’s pride Krunn

Summary/Abstract: The article addresses the origin of the word krunn ‘hair bun’ and its synonyms in Estonian dialects. Previously, an Estonian­Swedish loan etymology has been suggested for krunn, < krún, which implies that an irregular phonological change took place in the borrowing. This explanation was suspect due to the meaning correspondence between the source language and the target language. In the past, hair buns were typically covered by headwear, so it is not likely that there would have been reason to give them a name motivated by the comparison to a crown. In order to find a possible single basis for the naming of this hair style, I identified the synonyms of Krunn in Estonian dialects. Among the synonyms analyzed, two groups stand out, wherein the primary meaning (in addition to denoting the hair style) was 1) something small and round or 2) a bunch/bundle of flax, hemp, or similar. Loan etymologies are presented for the synonyms nukk, null, nuul (Finnish­Swedish loans), nuut (from Swedish and German) and tutt (a Baltic German loan). Krunn could be an Estonian­Swedish loan, the source being the stem runn, meaning ‘round’ (of objects). The word­initial consonant cluster has emerged as a result of hypercorrection.

• Details
• Contents