Remarks |
'Spotted', from 'spot' borrowed from Low German 'spot' or Middle Dutch 'spotte' from prehistoric German 'sput-' and may also be connected to Old English 'splott' (p. 495 in Ref. 11979); 'cow', i.e., female of cattle, from Old English from West and North Germanic 'kouz' from Indo-European 'gwous' (p. 142 in Ref. 11979); 'shark', of obscure origins but appears to have been introduced by members of the Sir John Hawkins' expedition ( a ballad of 1569 recorded 'There is no proper name for [the fish] that I know, but that certain men of Captain Hawkins's doth call it a shark'), ressembles Austrian dialect 'schirk', i.e., sturgeon (p. 471 in Ref. 11979). Also Ref. 10161. |