Pages: 107-109

The etymological root of the Icelandic word “glenna” is reviewed. The semantic parallel between the meanings range of this word (`break, clear space between clouds, grimace, perineum, joke, frivolous woman’) and the Slavic “shutiti” (`to joke’), “shutka” (`joke’ from the Russian, `vagina’ from the Bulgarian) is revealed. The author thinks that the meaning development of the Icelandic “glenna” can be also traced back without the Slavic parallel, but in this case the reconstruction would be bold. There is no reason to think that two outlying reas (north-German and south-Slavic) preserved up to our days the state, that is typical for the ancient Indo-European language on the whole. We rather face the case of parallel evolution: jumps and games were a “joke” everywhere, but the space between jumper legs, slided apart can be naturally connected with a perineum and moreover with a “vagina”.

Information about author:

Liberman A.S. (Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA)