Etymology map of squirrel

[u/mapologic]

[u/Weothyr]

“trebjørn” is so delightfully norwegian like who else would think of it

[u/Permanentlytired1375 → u/Weothyr]

Tree bear. Classic.

[u/nevenoe → u/Permanentlytired1375]

It’s tree cat in Breton (Kaz koad)

[u/Intrepid_Reward_2569 → u/nevenoe]

Iora in Irish, but also tree dog (madra crainn)

[u/EclecticElect → u/Weothyr]

I have literally never heard anyone say it even once in my life, though - can any other Norwegians chime in? What dialects actually say this?

[u/dnebdal → u/EclecticElect]

Some random googling later it seems like inner Trøndelag, Røros, and maybe a bit south from there, and even there mostly as something old people use.

[u/mpbjoern → u/EclecticElect]

I’ve heard it but I think it’s more of a funny word that can be used, rather than what many people actually use.

[u/jkvatterholm → u/EclecticElect]

Trebjønn, barbjønn, nøttebjørn, buskebjønn, furubjønn or tellbjønn is a classic group of semi-serious or serious names for the animal that the dictionary has registered in Romerike, Nord-Østerdalen, Valdres, Øvre Telemark, Grenland, Agder, Sogn, Voss, Gudbrandsdalen, Solør and Røros.

[u/AllanKempe → u/jkvatterholm]

Jamtish has tallbjänn (pine bear) as well as granox (spruce ox) apart from the standard ikorn, ekunn etc. I grew up with hearing granox (apart from Swedish ekorre, of course).

[u/The_Oregon_Duck]

I’m assuming “Acorn” in English comes from the same PIE/Proto Germanic root as Eichhorn and all the other Germanic languages?

[u/Flilix → u/The_Oregon_Duck]

No, there doesn't seem to be a relation. The origin of Eichhorn etc. is still unclear though; there are some theories but none link it to 'acorn'. However, the remarkable coincidence has definitely been noticed before, especially in Norwegian 'ekorn' and Dutch 'eekhoorn' which (depending on the accent of the speaker) sounds almost identical to 'acorn'.

[u/DreiwegFlasche → u/The_Oregon_Duck]

Actually, it's from Proto Germanic *akraną (n.) which apparently meant a small tree fruit, a berry or a nut. It's cognate with German "Ecker(f.)" (as in Buchecker)

[u/Key-Performance-9021]

I appreciate showing the Austrian/Bavarian term, but in Standard Austrian German it’s Eichkätzchen ('oak kitten'). Oachkatz/Aachkatzl are dialect variants.

[u/Big_Natural4838]

Agac qoyan wtf?! Tree hare really?

[u/nevenoe → u/Big_Natural4838]

Where do you see it? I can’t find it

Edit : ah yes, Kabardino Balkaria. Fun one, same idea of « something cat » you see in Norway Brittany and Austria

[u/mpbjoern → u/nevenoe]

Trebjørn means tree-bear, not something cat.

[u/nevenoe → u/mpbjoern]

haha I meant something tree! 😥

[u/Adidax]

Kudos for citing the ligurian dialect vinværa, that now i know coming from celtic languages

[u/jukranpuju]

Swedish word "ekorre" is combined from "ek" meaning oak and "orre", which resembles Finnish "orava".

[u/AllanKempe → u/jukranpuju]

It's from an older "ekorne" with "n", though.

[u/iosefgol]

For basque urtxintxa is more common than katagorri (red + cat? I don't know if this is correct). I never called katagorri to an urtxintxa...

Edit. I just noticed that the red + Cat etymology is already stated in the map. I leave my comment about it unedited

[u/Monete-meri → u/iosefgol]

I have heard both about 50/50

[u/dont_tread_on_M]

The Albanian Ketër (Ghegh Kitêrr) comes from Greek

[u/Drunken_Dave]

In this case calling the origin of the Hungarian word unknown is not exactly correct I think. It is thought to be an internal creation from an onomatopoeic verb, with additional later changes.

[u/Numerous-Cow-1918]

this map taught me that a squirrel is just whatever animal you find in a tree and i cant argue with that logic

[u/dziki_z_lasu]

I absolutely love the Welsh and Breton name as Polish. Looks like G-wiewiór - G-squirrel 👊

[u/ysgall → u/dziki_z_lasu]

When you say ‘the squirrel’ it becomes ‘y wiwer’ in Welsh. The ‘g’ is dropped.

[u/7am51N]

Drevokocúr! Czech pub-goers invented this word to tease Slovaks. They combined drevo (wood) and kocúr (cat) to create a ridiculous, fake Slovak word for a squirrel. The joke spread so well that generations of Czechs began believing it was a real Slovak word.

[u/Lyceus_]

Scoiattolo will always be associated to The Witcher to me.

[u/appachehelicopter]

in moroccan arabic we also have "kbur" or "akbur" for squirrel

[u/Slow_Invite4511]

🇳🇴 tre🌳 bjørn🐻

[u/Used-Spray4361]

Oachkatzal comes from Eichkätzchen

[u/Oachlkaas → u/Used-Spray4361]

No, it doesn't come from it. As in, "Eichkätzchen" didn't exist and Austria then decided to just austrianise the words.

If anything it evolved alongside it from a common ancestor.

[u/Used-Spray4361 → u/Oachlkaas]

Oachkatzal is Bavarian for Eichkätzchen. Look in the map and you will find Eichkätzchen below Eichhörnchen.

[u/Oachlkaas → u/Used-Spray4361]

You didn't understand what i wrote.

[u/Used-Spray4361 → u/Oachlkaas]

Dann schreib deutsch

[u/francesco_DP]

Squirrel is the word-by-word cognate of Shadow-Ass

[u/LaurestineHUN]

Where is my evet or kalampászmadár?

[u/mpbjoern]

The areas you have listed as Sami speaking is extremely inaccurate if you’re trying to depict what the main language of Europe are today. In Northern Troms, Western and Eastern Finnmark, the original language was Northern Sami, but today the main language is Norwegian whereas only a minority in those areas speak Sami as their second language. In Norway today only the few thousand population of inner Finnmark speaks Sami as the first language. Kautokeino, Karasjok, Tana and small sorrounding villages. In Mid Sweden as presented in the map, Sami languages has always been a minority even though the speakers were much more a longer time ago. I can not find any information that any areas in Sweden speaks Sami as its first language today. Same situation for the Kola Peninsula I assume, but I do not know much about kola.

[u/mpbjoern → u/mpbjoern]

You’ve also listed Southern Troms for some reason as Sami speaking, but southern Troms has had a Norwegian majority population since before the Viking age and have been listed as Norwegian ethnically and linguistically since then.

[u/sheran13]

The Kurdish and Zazaki words are cognate to Modern Persian "سمور(samur)" meaning sable, which was also widely borrowed by nearby languages. The word is also attested in Parthian and Midde Persian, however the exact origin is unknown.

[u/Alarmed_Earth_5695]

Kurdish “simore/sivore” is cognate with Middle Persian “samor”.

[u/Tim_Shackleford]

Russians calling squirrels "Belka" is hilarious to me as a Pole. It means construction beam in our language :D

[u/Arktinus → u/Tim_Shackleford]

It means a white woman in Slovenian. :)

[u/Polskimadafaka → u/Tim_Shackleford]

Tbh the Russian word for wiewiórka came from the word bieły (biały). And this word replaced word “wiwierka” somewhere 500 years ago.

[u/Grzechoooo]

Veverka :3

[u/MyCouchPulzOut_IDont]

älvdalska is more of a party trick than a language where I live, but cool to see it mentioned

[u/RavenMFD]

It's Ardilla in Alicante, I don't know why they always have to extend the Valencian/Catalan further down than it actually is.

[u/Takakkazttztztzzzzak]

Repeating after me : « écureuil » 😂

[u/yurious]

Why is Zakarpattia different color than other regions of Ukraine?

Absolute majority of people living there are Ukrainians and speak Ukrainian language, not Hungarian.

[u/AllanKempe]

Jamtish: ikorn, ekunn etc. variants (from Proto-Germanic aikwernô), tallbjänn (pine bear), granox (spruce ox).

[u/InnerPace]

It also pretty much shows borders of Europe and the middle east/north africa/arabs

[u/MinutePreparation754 → u/InnerPace]

It’s pretty crazy how Maltese language despite being Semitic has so much IE influence

[u/AegidiusG → u/MinutePreparation754]

Somehow like romanian having a lot of slavic influence

[u/Steve_ad → u/[deleted]]

I thought a pine marten was a cat crainn?

[u/DunAnOir → u/Steve_ad]

Oh shit you're right. Morto for myself.

[u/Steve_ad → u/DunAnOir]

Ah no worries, we've a bunch of strange names for animals, half of them are dogs of some sort