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Sanskrit (v)rsabhá-, Greek αρσην, ερσην: the spraying bull of Indo-European?

The article discusses the Indo-European word for 'male animal', which sometimes appears with an initial *u- and sometimes without: Sanskrit (v)rsabha- ‘bull’, vrsan- 'male', Avestan aršan- ‘male’, varšna- ‘manly’, Armenian arn ‘ram’, Greek αρσην, αρρην, ερσην 'male', Latin verrēs ‘boar’, Lithuanian veršis ‘(male) calf ; bull, ox’. There existed a Proto-Indo-European determinative compound *gw(e)h3ursēn 'bull' (Tocharian A kayurs ‘bull’, B kaurse ‘bull’, Old Norse kursi, kussi ‘bull calf’) < *gw(e)h3-u- 'cow' + *ursēn 'male'. The compound was reanalyzed by the speakers as containing a second part *-rsēn, which became the basis for the Indo-European forms without initial *u-.

Indo-European; etymology; compound

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