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Tiit-Rein Viitso. Pagan, põrgu, and papp: Three Christian Terms |
2006, nr. 11 |
Except when used for cursing, the Estonian
pagan and its Livonian and Finnish equivalents mean 'heathen,
non-Christian', while their Votic, Ingrian, Karelian, Lude, and
Veps equivalents have (mostly) the meaning 'unclean'. Unlike the
existing etymological dictionaries, which regard the stem as an
Old Russian borrowing in all Finnic languages, here the Estonian,
Livonian, and Finnish nouns with the meaning 'heathen' are explained
as a borrowing from Latin. In fact, there is no proof that the
Old Russian adjective poganŭ
– the cognates of which in Church Slavonic and modern Slavic
languages have the meaning 'unclean' – and the Old Russian
nouns poganinŭ, poganyi, poganĭcĭ –
without equivalents in other Slavic languages and translated as
'heathen' by more recent Russian philologists – have ever
had any meanings other than 'unclean person'. On the other hand,
Livonians and Estonians were characterized as pagani by
the crusader chronicler Henry of Livonia in the first half of
the 13th century.
Differently from the tradition of associating the Estonian noun
põrgu 'hell' with the Baltic stem for 'thunder'
(cf. Lithuanian perkūnas, Latvian pērkons), here
the stem is considered to be either a Germanic or a West Slavic
borrowing, cf. Old English beorg 'barrow, mound', English
barrow, Czech brh 'cave'. As is known, the word
was used in Credo in the meaning 'grave', at first separately
(porke) in the 1520s and starting from 1632 in the compound
põrguhaud (Pörgkohaud).
The Estonian word papp (gen. papi) 'clergyman (pejorative);
Orthodox clergyman' and its etymological parallels occurring in
other Finnic languages are usually treated as borrowings from
Old Russian. As the word has an i-stem in Finnic, one might
suggest that the stem was rather borrowed from Middle Low German
pape (into Estonian and Livonian) and from Scandinavian,
cf. Old Nordic and Old Swedish papi (into Finnish and Karelian).
The earlier arguments levelled against the Germanic origin of
the stem are based on incorrect historical assumptions.
Keywords: Estonian, etymology, language
contacts, borrowings, Christian terms.
Tiit-Rein Viitso (b. 1938), PhD, University
of Tartu, Department of Estonian and Finno-Ugric Linguistics,
Chair of Finnic Languages, extraordinary senior reseacher,
tiit-rein.viitso@ut.ee
| 2006 |
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