Open AccessOn the Etymology and Semantic History of Slavic *kras-
Author(s) -
Zhanna Varbot
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
slavânskoe i balkanskoe âzykoznanie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2658-3372
DOI - 10.31168/2658-3372.2019.2.4
Subject(s) - etymology , slavic languages , linguistics , meaning (existential) , verb , object (grammar) , noun , semantics (computer science) , history , semantic change , philosophy , epistemology , computer science , programming language
The history of how humans discovered percussion methods of fi re-lighting presupposes the primacy of the meaning ‘cut, hew' for Proto-Slavic *kresati, the ‘fi re striking' semantics of the verb being a more recent development. The article argues for the hypothesis that the noun *krasa, denoting a craf-ted piece perfect in shape = a beautiful object (cf. the motivational pattern of Latin formosus ‘shapely, beautiful'), could be a derivative of *kresati. The ‘fi re making' semantics developed by *kresati would in its turn moti-vate the shift towards the meaning ‘red (color)', by association with fire.