Article

Name: Croch ~ cros ‘cross’: Latin Borrowings and Christian Traditional Metaphors in Early Ireland

Authors: T. A. Mikhailova

Institute of Linguistics RAS, Russian Federation; Moscow State University, Russian Federation

Abstract: OI croch represents a ‘pre-lenition’ early Latin borrowing (cf. MW crog) widely attested in Old Irish glosses with the meaning ‘the Cross’, ‘the Crusification’. The Latin word crux was adopted in its oblique form crucem into both Goidelic and British with o-vocalism of the root. In original pre-Christian Latin the word covered a semantic field ‘torture, hanging, execution, death penalty’. The Latin term represents a supposed Mediterranean wondering word adopted in Rome after Punic wars together with the practice of crucifixion. In Early glosses the word (as well as its weak verb crochaid) remains closely connected with Christianity, but later develops extra meanings departing from different sides of the semantic complex ‘Crucifixion’: ‘to torture, to execute’ in general and especially –‘to hang’, later – ‘to hang an object’. In early Law tracts croch means one of the penalty practices: ‘hanging’ and presumably loss its semantic connection with New Testament tradition. This semantic shift could be interpreted by existence of the later Latin doublet loanword: cros ‘a cross’ a form of the cross’, later ‘a defense, a coverage’. In the “Language of the Glosses” (VII–VIII c.) the later loanword cross (from Lat. crux) means 1. a cross as a geometrical figure 2. so called ‘high crosses’ of Irish monasteries 3. Crosfigil a special kind of prayer standing in a position of body with arms outstretched in imitation of the Cross. In later Lives the word cros is used as the name of a specific ‘magic’ gesture. In folk tradition as well as in modern Irish phraseology cros represents a symbol the saint’s and Christ’s protection. The same meaning also can be found in traditional folk charms.

Keywords: Ireland, Britania, Romanization, Latin loanwords, Christianization, cross, law tracts, folk tradition, folk Christianity, phraseology, semantic derivation

Bibliography:

Bieler L. The Christianization of the Insular Celts. Celtica, 1968, vol. 8, p. 112–125.

Binchy D. The Old-Irish Table of Penitential Commutations. Ériu, 1962, vol. 19, p. 47–72.

Carey J. Magicheskie texty v rannesrednevekovoj Irlandii [Magic texts of Early Ireland]. Transl. by N. Chekhonadskaya. In: Atlantica. Sapiski po istoricheskoj poetice [Atlancica: Studies on Historical Poetics]. Moscow, Max-Press, 2008, iss. 8, p. 3–26 (in Russ.)

Clancy Th. O., Márcus G. Iona. The Earliest Poetry of a Celtic Momastery. Edinburg, Edinburgh University Press, 1995, 271 p.

De Vries J. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. Leiden, Brill, 1962, 689 S.

Delamarre X. Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise. Une approche linguistique de vieux-celtique continental. Paris, Edition Errance, 2003, 440 p.

Dinneen P. Foclóir Gaedhilge agus Béarla – Irish-English Dictionary. Dublin, The Irish Texts Society, 1927, 1344 p.

Dio Cassius. Istoria Cezarey [Historia Romana]. Transl. and comm. by V. Talah. URL: http://simposium.ru/ru/node/12886. (in Russ.)

Ernout A., Meillet A. Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue latine: histoire des mots. Paris, Librairie C. Klincksieck, 1939, 1184 p.

Green M. Symbol and Image in Celtic Religious Art. London; New York, Routledge, 1989, 279 p.

Herodotus. Iistoria [History]. Transl. and comm. by G. A. Stratanovsky. Moscow, AST, 2007, 700 p. (in Russ.)

Hughes K. The Church in Irish Society, 400–800. In: A New History of Ireland. I. Prehistoric and Early Ireland. Ed. by D. Ó Cróinín. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2005, p. 301–330.

Jackson K. Language and History in Early Britain. Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 1953, 752 p.

Kelly F. A Guide to Early Irish Law. Dublin, DIAS, 1988, 358 p.

Kluge Fr. Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache. Berlin, Walter de Gruyter & Co., 1957, 900 S.

Knott E. (ed.) Togail Bruidne Da Derga. Dublin, DIAS, 1975, 153 p.

Mallory J. P. The Origins of the Irish. London, Thames & Hudson, 2013, 200 p.

Marucchi O. Archaeology of the Cross and Crucifix. In: The Catholic Encyclopedia.

McNamara M. The Psalms in the Early Irish Church. Sheffield, Sheffield University Press, 2000, 492 p.

Murphy G. (ed.) Early Irish Lyrics. Dublin, Four Courts Press, 1998, 315 p.

Ó Catháin S. The Festival of Brigit, Celtic Goddess and Holy Woman. Blackrock, Dundalgan Press, 1995, 194 p.

Ó hAodha D. (ed.) Bethu Brigte. Dublin, DIAS, 1978, 91 p.

Pokorny J. Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. Bern, Franke Verlag, 1959, 1183 S.

Rankin D. The Celts and the Calssical World. London; New York, Routledhe, 1987, 328 p.

Russell P. An Introduction to the Celtic Languages. New York, Longman Publishing, 1995, 347 p.

Sandberg-McGowan A. Viking Influence on Irish Weaponry and Dress? In: Celtica Helsingiensia. Proceedings from a Symposium on Celtic Studies. Ed. by A. Ahlqvist et al. Helsinki, Societas Scientiarum Fennica, 1996, p. 215–232.

Stokes W. (ed.) Lives of Saints from the Book of Lismore, ed. with a translations, notes and indices. Oxford, At the Clarendon Press, 1890, 411 p.

Stokes W. (ed.) The Tripartite Life of Patrick with other documents relating to this saint. London, Her Majesty’s Stationary Office, 1887, 676 p.

Stokes W., Strachan J. Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus. A Collection of Old Irish Glosses, Scholia, Prose and Verse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1901, vol. 1, 727 p., vol. 2, 506 p.

Thurneysen R. Old Irish Reader. Dublin, DIAS, 1949, 109 p.

Uspensky B. A. Krug I krest. Iz istorii christianskoj simvoliki [Circle and Cross. Towards the history of Christian symbolic]. Monograph. Moscow, JSK, 2006, 488 p. (in Russ).

Watkins C. American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots. Boston; New York, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011, 151 p.