| Remarks |
'Small' from prehistoric Germanic 'smalaz' from Indo-European base 'smel-, mel-', i.e., grind or ground up into little bits (p. 484 in Ref. 11979); 'mouth' from prehistoric Germanic 'munthaz' (German and Danish 'mund', Dutch 'mond' and Swedish 'mun') from same Indo-European source as that of Latin 'mentum', i.e., chin; 'salmon' replaced Old English 'laex' (German 'lachs'; Swedish 'lax', source of English 'gravlax'; Yiddish 'laks', source of English 'lox', i.e., smoked salmon; Russian 'losos') borrowed from Anglo-Norman 'saumoun' from Latin 'salmo, -onis' linked to 'salire', i.e., to jump and hence, the leaping fish (p. 454 in Ref. 11979); 'cat' from Anglo-Norman 'cat' from of Old French 'chat' from Germanic 'kattuz' from Latin 'catta, cattus' (given the domestic cat's origins in Egypt, it is likely to have been of Egyptian origin) replacing 'feles', i.e., wild cat (p. 100 in Ref. 11979); 'fish' from Germanic 'fiskaz' (also source of Gothic 'fisks', German 'fisch', Dutch 'visch', Swedish and Danish 'fisk') from ancient Indo-European 'piskos' (also source of Latin 'piscis' which in turn gave French 'poisson', Italian 'pesce', Spanish 'pez', Breton 'pesk' and Welsh 'psygodyn') (p. 229 in Ref. 11979). |