BEKA 'FROG' IN PLANT NAMES

• Authors: Racz Janos
• Languages of publication: HU

Abstracts

EN

Popular plant names are not only important for their linguistic and botanic aspects but also as part of the cultural history of mankind. Of the various subtypes, plant names involving animal names are especially intriguing. Many Hungarian plant names involve beka 'frog' as an anterior constituent, for instance: bekabuzogany 'bur-reed', bekadunyha 'frog's blanket', bekahagyma 'frog's onion', bekakaposzta 'frog's cabbage', bekakorso 'water-parsnip', bekakosar 'frog's basket', bekalab 'frog's foot', bekalencse 'duckweed', bekaliliom 'water violet', bekarokka 'shave grass', etc. This animal name almost exclusively occurs in names of plants growing in water or in moist places. The author discusses the word history and word geography of 60 such plant names found in various botanic treatises, folklore texts and linguistic compendia, trying to explore their conceptual background and motives and to give etymological explanations.

Keywords

EN

ANIMAL NAMES; ETYMOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS; PLANT NAMES; WORD GEOGRAPHY; WORD HISTORY

Discipline

• PHILOLOGY_&_LINGUISTICS: PHILOLOGY & LINGUISTICS

• Publisher: Committee on Hungarian Linguistics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Magyar Nyelvor (Hungarian Language Guardian)
• Year: 2005
• Volume: 129
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 186-201
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Racz Janos

• No address given; contact the journal editor

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

11HUAAAA090213