Previous Etymologies

Abstract The twelfth chapter reviews and criticizes previously proposed etymologies for PIE *E1ék̑u̯os. Nineteenth-century views, based on ethnographic models of Native Americans, which related *E1ék̑u̯os to *k̑uu̯-on ‘dog’ are rejected because of the great disparity in the cultures’ access to domestic animals. The New World tribes named the horse, once it was adopted from the Europeans, as a kind of the dog, the only domesticated animal they knew. A semantically attractive relationship to *O̮eEk̑-u̯- ‘swift’ is also shown to be morphologically impossible. Appeals to roots for ‘shine’ and ‘eye’ are phonologically impossible. Loans from North Caucasian and Yenisean are also implausible.