Notes On The Etymology Of Sp. 'perro' - Persée

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Notes on the etymology of sp. ‘perro’

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C. Hernando Balmori Études celtiques Année 1941 4-1 pp. 48-54

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Balmori C. Hernando. Notes on the etymology of sp. ‘perro’. In: Etudes Celtiques, vol. 4, fascicule 1, 1941. pp. 48-54.

DOI : https://doi.org/10.3406/ecelt.1941.1177

www.persee.fr/doc/ecelt_0373-1928_1941_num_4_1_1177

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NOTES ON THE ETYMOLOGY OF SP. 4 PERRO ’

BY

C. HERNANDO B ALMORI

It occurs to me that the Spanish word perro might possibly have its origin in a Celtic form meaning primarily quadruped.

In the first place, in romanic languages there are significant details which lead one to suspect that this word possessed for¬ merly a more generalised meaning later limited to that of* dog’, probably referring to his legs notable for their strength and agility.

Thus we find in piedmontese perru meaning a kind of rabbit ; theportug. perrisco means an improvised pen to enable, the she¬ pherds to keep count of the sheep when milking them ; in catal. — where the word perro itself does not exist — perranya means an old horse or mule. Perhaps a trace of the old meariing is still conserved in an old Spanish proverb, where the dog is referred to as * four footed ’ *, the same as in a well known old english folk song.

To turn now to Celtic languages, Zeuss Gr. C. 2 p. 303 had already pointed out that ir. cethir has also the meaning of * qua¬ druped ’ : Sg. 70b cethir (gl. hic et hoc pecus i. e. quadrupes').

For further examples of cethir ‘ quadruped ’, some of them with a collective meaning and concord, cf. K. Meyer, Contribu¬ tions s. V. Pedersen, K. Gr. I p. 94 and Lewis-Pedersen, p. 27, derives the form cethir as meaning * quadrupes from *kwetwer-pôds or *ku’etwor-peds with the assimilation of -r .p-to -rr-. An

I. Meyer-Lübke, PEW s. v. Petrus has suggested that sp. perro was ‘ per¬ haps ’ a celtiberian word.

2. R. Ramirez de Arellano, Folklore portorriqueño p . 58. Public, de la Junta, Madrid 1926.