Re: Celtic word for "tree"

On Wed, 10 Nov 2004 13:47:12 -0000, caeruleancentaur
<caeruleancentaur@...> wrote:

>I subscribe to the magazine "Parabola."  In an article entitled "The
>Celtic Tree of Life" by Mara Freeman occurs the following
>statement: "That most magical of Celtic trees, the oak, derives its
>Gaelic name (Old Irish "daur", Welsh "derw") from the Sanskrit
>word "duir," which gives us "door."
Just checked back with my Monier-Williams Sanskrit dictionary (which has
~150,000 entries!), and "duir" is definitely no Sanskrit word!

For "oak", I find the following entries:
 ===> [ kuliGga ]3[ ku-liGga ] m.
 ---> ( [ A ] ) , f. a kind of oak-apple L.
 ===> [ kulIraviSANikA ]3[ kulIra-viSANikA ] f. a kind of oak-apple Bhpr.
 ===> [ kuzapuSpa ]3[ kuz'a-puSpa ] n. a kind of oak-apple L.

"Door" in Sanskrit would be:
 ===> [ dur ]1[ d'ur ]1 f. ( only [ d'uras ] acc. nom. , and [ dur'as ]. pl.
) = [ dvAr ] , a door ( cf. 2. [ dura ] )
 ===> [ dvAr ]2[ dv'Ar ] ( fr. &#8730; [ dvR ]? ) , gate , door , entrance or
issue , fig. expedient , means , opportunity ( instr. [ °rA ] ifc. by means
of , by )
cf. RV. cf. AV. cf. &#346;Br. cf. Mn. cf. MBh. cf. K&#257;v. &c. [ Cf. 1. [ dur ] , 1.
[ dura ] and [ dvAra ]

---> Gk. ? ; Lat. [ fores ] ; Slav. [ dv&#728;ir&#728;i ] ; Lit. , [ d'urys ] ; [ 504
,2 ] Got , [ daur ] ; Old Sax. [ dor ] &c. ]

>There are two PIE roots: *deru (with variations) which is the origin
>of the English "tree," and *dhwer (with variations) which is the
>origin of the English "door."  I believe the author of the above
>statement is wrong in deriving the Gaelic word from the PIE root for
>door.
Yes, you're right there.

--
Pascal A. Kramm, author of Choton
official Choton homepage:
http://www.choton.org