The Principal Term

Abstract The eleventh chapter reviews the attestations of ‘horse’ in all branches of the Indo-European family of languages as well as evidence from compounds and onomastics, concluding that regular reflexes are found in eight branches with compounds or derivatives in three others. The term is missing only in Armenian, where a supposed cognate is rejected. The uniformity and distributions of these forms and their unanimous meaning of ‘horse, Equus ferus caballus’ indicate that this was the meaning in Proto-Indo-European. Claims that the form was borrowed in the fourth or fifth millennium from unattested or recently recorded languages is implausible. This term is the one that must be specifically addressed.