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muckefuckFurther investigation is revealing more consistency.
Scandivanian
The Scandinavian terms bear a suspicious resemblance to Dutch beul. (These words all have the same vowel--German ö--though they spell it differently.) I'm now curious to see whether there's a cognate in Low German. The Russian isn't related to the West Slavic terms, but it's striking that Czech and Polish agree when such equally close kin as Spanish and Portuguese don't. The Celtic terms all have the same etymology: Agent nouns of the verb "to hang" (ultimately derived from Latin crucis "cross"). But I do find it interesting that there are no parallel etymologies in Romance or English.
Hungarian, however, has the mysterious hóhér. I can't derive it from any Hungarian roots and there's no obvious source for it if it is, in fact, a borrowing.
(Incidentally, I think palach (accent on the final syllable) is a fine name for a command chair. Etymologically, it might mean "he who burns" or (like Spanish verdugo) be related to a word for "stick").
Scandivanian
- Norwegian, Danish: bøddel
- Swedish: bödel
- Russian: palach
- Polish, Czech: kat
- Irish: crochadóir
- Scots-Gaelic: crochadair
- Welsh: crogwr
The Scandinavian terms bear a suspicious resemblance to Dutch beul. (These words all have the same vowel--German ö--though they spell it differently.) I'm now curious to see whether there's a cognate in Low German. The Russian isn't related to the West Slavic terms, but it's striking that Czech and Polish agree when such equally close kin as Spanish and Portuguese don't. The Celtic terms all have the same etymology: Agent nouns of the verb "to hang" (ultimately derived from Latin crucis "cross"). But I do find it interesting that there are no parallel etymologies in Romance or English.
Hungarian, however, has the mysterious hóhér. I can't derive it from any Hungarian roots and there's no obvious source for it if it is, in fact, a borrowing.
(Incidentally, I think palach (accent on the final syllable) is a fine name for a command chair. Etymologically, it might mean "he who burns" or (like Spanish verdugo) be related to a word for "stick").
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