Reconstruction:Proto-Celtic/mokkus

< Reconstruction:Proto-Celtic

Reconstruction:Proto-Celtic/mokkus

This Proto-Celtic entry contains reconstructed terms and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence.

Proto-Celtic

Etymology

Borrowed from a non-Indo-European substrate language. MacBain prefers a derivation from Proto-Indo-European *mew-k- (“slippery, slimy”), connecting Latin mucus, Ancient Greek μυκτήρ (muktḗr, “nose, nostril”).[1]

Noun

*mokkus m or f[2]

1. pig, hog, swine

Inflection

Masculine/feminine u-stem
	singular	dual	plural
nominative	*mokkus	*mokkū	*mokkowes
vocative	*mokku	*mokkū	*mokkūs
accusative	*mokkum	*mokkū	*mokkums
genitive	*mokkous	*mokkous	*mokkowom
dative	*mokkou	*mokkubom	*mokkubos
locative	*?	*?	*?
instrumental	*mokkū	*mokkubim	*mokkubis

Usage notes

The Brythonic descendants are masculine and the Goidelic descendants feminine. It is probable that the word originally belonged to either gender, depending on the sex of the specific animal referred to.

Descendants

• Proto-Brythonic: *mox pl
  • Breton: moch
    • Breton: moch
      • Breton: moc'h
  • Middle Cornish: mogh
    • Cornish: mogh
  • Old Welsh: moch
    • Middle Welsh: moch
      • Welsh: moch
• Old Irish: mucc, muc
  • Middle Irish: mucc
    • Irish: muc
    • Manx: muc
    • Scottish Gaelic: muc
• Gaulish: moccos
  • Latin: Moccus (Gallo-Latin, theonym), Catomocus (placename)

• >? Proto-West Germanic: *mukk-
  • Middle Dutch: mocke (“slovenly woman, whore”)
  • Middle High German: mocke (“sow, female pig”, western)

References

1. MacBain, Alexander; Mackay, Eneas (1911), “muc”, in An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language, Stirling, →ISBN
2. Matasović, Ranko (2009) Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 9), Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, pages 274-275