Latin bellua / be:lua "beast" of Celtic origin?
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2020 |
| Type | Article in Proceedings |
| Conference | Loanwords and Substrata : Proceedings of the Colloquium held in Limoges (5th-7th June, 2018) |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Keywords | Latin; Celtic; Indo-European; historical phonetics; semantic typology |
| Description | In the present contribution the Latin word bellua / be:lua "beast, monster" is etymologized. The traditional derivation from IE *dhwes- "to breathe" is excluded for phonological reasons, since the initial should be f- as in Latin fore:s "door" < *dhwor-. On the other hand, the old comparison with Celtic *bled- "wolf; monster" is acceptable in perspectives of both phonetics and semantics, but only as a (Cis-Alpine?) Celtic loanword. |
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