Jul. 28th, 2004 03:44 pm
Tough shell to crack
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
muckefuckSnaps to the GWO for knowing the Latin for "turtle": testudo. It stuck because there's a military formation of that name: The soldiers all link their shields above their heads to form protect against projectiles raining down from above. The resemblance to the Italian word testa, meaning "head", is not coincidental: Both derive ultimately from Latin testu "(clay) pot".
I didn't recall that testudo had any offspring, but this morning I found testuggine in my Italian dictionary. The regular word, though, is tartaruga, which is believed (by Coromines and Larousse, among others) to come from--of all places--Greek tartarouchos "inhabitant of Tartarus [i.e. Hell]". Both our words turtle and tortoise are thought to stem (by means of various distortions and confusions) from the French cousin of tartaruga, tortue. The OED doubts the ultimately demonic etymology and looks for one involving tortus "twisted", but I've learned not to trust them with etymologies too far removed from English.
I haven't had any luck in discovering what words our Anglo-Saxon ancestors might've used. Our German cousins use Schildkröte "shield-toad", a transparent compound that is unlikely to be the reflex of any ancient term. It's a popular image, though, adopted in one variant or another by all other modern Germanic speakers, from the Dutch with their schildpad to the Icelanders and their skjaldbaka.
Surveying these terms, I'm struck by the fact that all are secondary derivations (as is the case even in Greek, Gaelic, and Welsh) are compounds. Nowhere in Western Europe, it seems, is the turtle's name a basic term on a par with "snake" or "sparrow". Why is that? Are they so uncommon there? Or does their curious appearance simply invite such naming strategies? After all, it's hard to put a finger on the more salient characteristic of a deer, something that would serve as a nail to hang a description on, but what could be more obviously testudinal than a shell? But, if that's the case, then how did, for instance, the East Asians (with their atomic terms gui1, kame, and kepuk) all independently resist the urge?
I didn't recall that testudo had any offspring, but this morning I found testuggine in my Italian dictionary. The regular word, though, is tartaruga, which is believed (by Coromines and Larousse, among others) to come from--of all places--Greek tartarouchos "inhabitant of Tartarus [i.e. Hell]". Both our words turtle and tortoise are thought to stem (by means of various distortions and confusions) from the French cousin of tartaruga, tortue. The OED doubts the ultimately demonic etymology and looks for one involving tortus "twisted", but I've learned not to trust them with etymologies too far removed from English.
I haven't had any luck in discovering what words our Anglo-Saxon ancestors might've used. Our German cousins use Schildkröte "shield-toad", a transparent compound that is unlikely to be the reflex of any ancient term. It's a popular image, though, adopted in one variant or another by all other modern Germanic speakers, from the Dutch with their schildpad to the Icelanders and their skjaldbaka.
Surveying these terms, I'm struck by the fact that all are secondary derivations (as is the case even in Greek, Gaelic, and Welsh) are compounds. Nowhere in Western Europe, it seems, is the turtle's name a basic term on a par with "snake" or "sparrow". Why is that? Are they so uncommon there? Or does their curious appearance simply invite such naming strategies? After all, it's hard to put a finger on the more salient characteristic of a deer, something that would serve as a nail to hang a description on, but what could be more obviously testudinal than a shell? But, if that's the case, then how did, for instance, the East Asians (with their atomic terms gui1, kame, and kepuk) all independently resist the urge?
Tags:
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
See, that would be a wrong conclusion to jump to. Seriously, combination words were a sign of uncommonness then almost nothing would be common to the Germans. :: laugh :: I mean, seriously, all I have to do is point to "Handschue". :: chuckle ::
It might not be so much something being common as it is pivotal to a life and culture when the word was created. Turtles were pivotal to East Asian culture (for everything from inscriptions to divination), and I would suggest that because of that commonness it was used as a reference point and, thus, other animals and items were compared against it. But this, then, brings up similar questions to tons of seafood getting a "bug" radical -- why were they compounded this way? I think, indeed, this question runs parallel to yours about the European "turtle".
no subject
Yeah, well, I don't think it's very likely that my brutal Teutonic ancestors were using gloves to hold their spears, no matter how cold it got.
It might not be so much something being common as it is pivotal to a life and culture when the word was created. Turtles were pivotal to East Asian culture...
I know this is true for the Chinese, but is it really equally true for the Koreans and Japanese? Most of the references to turtles I've come across in the Korean tradition ultimately derive from Chinese sources. I don't recall them showing up in any of the old legends I've read or in the archeological sites.
no subject
no subject