Open main menu
Home
Random
Recent changes
Special pages
Community portal
Preferences
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Incubator escapee wiki
Search
User menu
Talk
Dark mode
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Editing
Cernunnos
(section)
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
===Etymology=== The earliest etymology, proposed by [[Alfred Holder]], connected Cernunnos's name with a Celtic word for horn, a [[reflex (linguistics)|reflex]] of [[proto-Indo-European]] *{{wikt-lang|ine-x-proto|ḱerh₂-}} ("horn, hoof"). Hence, Holder analysed the name as "The Horned God". This etymology has the advantage of a close link with Cernunnos's iconography. However, [[Ernst Windisch]] and [[Leo Weisgerber]] pointed out that [[Indo-European ablaut|ablaut form]] of the proto-Indo-European root in Celtic is {{lang|cel-x-proto|karno}}{{efn|The presence of this ablaut form in proto-Celtic is attested by two Gaulish words for trumpets ({{lang|xtg|karnon}} and ''[[karnyx]]''), [[Middle Welsh]] {{lang|wlm|carn}} ("hoof"), [[Old Breton]] {{lang|obt|carn}} ("horse's hoof)", and perhaps [[Old Irish]] {{lang|sga|cruë}} ("hoof"). Semantically similar words with an o vowel (such as two Insular words both meaning horn, Old Irish {{lang|sga|corn}} and Welsh {{lang|cy|corn}}) are probably loanwords from the Latin ({{lang|la|cornu}} for "horn"), but Gaulish toponyms showing the form might hint at the presence of the reflex {{lang|cel-x-proto|korno}} ("horn") in proto-Celtic.<ref name=Nussbaum>{{cite book |last=Nussbaum |first=Alan |date=1986 |title=Head and Horn in Indo-European |url=https://archive.org/details/nussbaum-head-and-horn-in-indo-european-1986 |location=Berlin/New York |publisher=Walter de Gruyter }}</ref>{{rp|5–6}}<ref name=Matasovich>{{cite book |first=Ranko |last=Matasović |title=Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic |url=https://archive.org/details/matasovic-etymological-dictionary-of-proto-celtic |volume=9 |location=Leiden / Boston |series=Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series |publisher=Brill |date=2009 }}</ref>{{rp|191}}}} rather than {{lang|cel-x-proto|kerno}}.<ref name=LeRoux>{{cite journal |last=Le Roux |first=Françoise |journal=Ogam |volume=5 |date=1953 |pages=324–329 |title=Cernunnos |url=https://bibliotheque.idbe.bzh/data/cle_63/OGAM_Tradition_Celtique_1953_nA_25-26_.pdf#page=10 }}</ref>{{rp|325}}<ref name=deVries>{{cite book |last=de Vries |first=Jan |title=Keltische Religion |date=1961 |url=https://archive.org/details/keltischereligio0000vrie |url-access=registration |location=Stuttgart |publisher=W. Kohlhammer }}</ref>{{rp|105}} Weisgerber proposed that the theonym derived from [[proto-Celtic]] {{lang|cel-x-proto|kerno}} ("angle, excrescence"),{{efn|Attested by Old Irish {{lang|sga|cern}} ("angle, corner"), Middle Welsh {{lang|wlm|cern}} ("corner, jaw, cheek, side"), Middle Breton {{lang|xbm|quern}} ("top"), Cornish {{lang|kw|Kernow}} ("[[Cornwall]]").<ref name=Nussbaum/>{{rp|113}}<ref name=Matasovich/>{{rp|215}}}} a reflex of the same proto-Indo-European root.<ref name=deVries/>{{rp|106}}<ref name=Matasovich/>{{rp|203}} Le Roux concurred with Weisgerber; she associated proto-Celtic {{lang|cel-x-proto|kerno}} with the meaning "top of the head", and argued that Cernunnos's name should be interpreted as "the one who has the top of his head like a deer".<ref name=LeRoux/>{{rp|328–329}} Vendryes suggested that the name was cognate with the [[Old Irish]] word {{wikt-lang|sga|cern}} ("hero").<ref name=Vendryes>{{cite book |title=Féil-sgríbhinn Eóin Mhic Néill: Essays and Studies presented to Professor Eoin MacNeill |editor-last=Ryan |editor-first=John |chapter=Prydain et Britanni |last=Vendryes |first=Joseph |pages=160–166 |location=Dublin |publisher=Three Candles |date=1940 }}</ref>{{rp|162}}
Edit summary
(Briefly describe your changes)
By publishing changes, you agree to the
Terms of Use
, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 License
and the
GFDL
. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)