Re: New Brithenig words, part Deux.

On Thu, May 24, 2001 at 05:31:48PM +1200, andrew wrote:
>
> Am 05/22 12:21  Padraic Brown yscrifef:
>
> > snail, cogle < cochlea
>
> This one proved to be quite a battle.  It seems that cochlea dropped out
> of Vulgar Latin and in France and Iberia was replaced by *caracol
> borrowed from Arabic *karkara.  It even effects [escargot].  I looked at
> Brythonic but can find no immediate etymology for [malwen].  For now I
> would suggest *caragol.
>
There was supposedly a British word melwos or melwa: or melwon (snails are
hermaphrodite anyway) meaning both slug and snail. Welsh malwod "slugs,
snails", singular in -en (so Welsh snails are girls). Actually if the original
was melwa: then the /a/ in malwod might be explained by a-affection. In
Cornish we have melhwenn or melhwesenn "slug" so Cornish slugs are girls
too but with the original /e/. (For snail we have bulhorn).

In Pharmaceutical Latin "cochleare" means "spoonful", could this have
anything at all to do with snails?

Keith