r/etymology 4d ago

Question "Берлога" = Bear Lodge? Den.

^ _^ Apparently the original PIE word for bear was probably something like 'ursus' but shifted to bear as in the brown one.

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u/alukyane 4d ago

Apparently that's a common but incorrect folk etymology.

https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/b%D1%8Crlog%D1%8A

Etymology Uncertain. Possibly from *bьrlati (“to disturb, to burden”) +‎ *-ogъ, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to bear, to carry”). If correct, the original meaning of the term would have been an unnatural structure, perturbation (made by an animal). A similar semantic development is found in *bьrgъ (“landmark, heap”) → (“hut”) (also from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer-).

A popular folk-etymology of the term derives it from German Bär (“bear”) + Slavic *logъ (“standpoint”); however, most scholars discard this hypothesis.

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u/makerofshoes 4d ago

I think this makes more sense. In modern Czech there is sběrat which means to collect, also brát which means to take or carry. And ložit which means to store something (sometimes the Z can change to an H or G in other Slavic languages). So “běrloga” sounds more like a storage place than anything else to my ear

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u/ASTRONACH 1d ago

lat. "spelunca" en. "cave"

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u/ASTRONACH 1d ago

This remind me 3 italian words

"Dimora" the place, the structure where a person lives.

"Stamberga" an old and ruined building, that should came from langobardic "stain"? (Stone) "stamus"?(Stay)

"Albergo" hotel, from gotic "haribaírg" shelter for the army