# Etymology of Slavic "foot"



## Kurdistanish

Hi everybody,

I wanted to know abt the etymology of Slavic word for "foot"~"noga", "nog"*, etc. In Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji dialect) there is "nyg" for "foot" besides current "pe"/"pi". Do Slavic "noga" and Kurdish "nyg" share same root? 

Thanx


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## Athaulf

Kurdistanish said:


> Hi everybody,
> 
> I wanted to know abt the etymology of Slavic word for "foot"~"noga", "nog"*, etc.



According to Pokorny, this word comes from the PIE root *_onogh_-, which originally meant "nail" or "claw" (in fact, English "nail" is apparently its cognate). In Vasmer's Russian etymological dictionary, the entry for _noga_ says "ORIGIN: native [Slavic word], with original meaning 'claw'". 



> In Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji dialect) there is "nyg" for "foot" besides current "pe"/"pi". Do Slavic "noga" and Kurdish "nyg" share same root?



I have no idea. I'd say it's not highly likely, since the non-Slavic cognates of _noga_ listed in the above dictionaries mostly have meaning along the lines of "nail" or "claw", rather than "foot". However, it is possible, so you'll have to find some authoritative source on Kurdish etymology for a definite answer.


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## Kurdistanish

Athaulf said:


> According to Pokorny, this word comes from the PIE root *_onogh_-, which originally meant "nail" or "claw" (in fact, English "nail" is apparently its cognate). In Vasmer's Russian etymological dictionary, the entry for _noga_ says "ORIGIN: native [Slavic word], with original meaning 'claw'".
> 
> 
> 
> I have no idea. I'd say it's not highly likely, since the non-Slavic cognates of _noga_ listed in the above dictionaries mostly have meaning along the lines of "nail" or "claw", rather than "foot". However, it is possible, so you'll have to find some authoritative source on Kurdish etymology for a definite answer.


 
Thank you, I'll compare the information to figure it out if Kurdish "nyg" is cognate with Slavic "noga" or not.


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## Frank06

Hi,


Kurdistanish said:


> Thank you, I'll compare the information to figure it out if Kurdish "nyg" is cognate with Slavic "noga" or not.


 
Maybe these pages (_Indo-Aryan inherited lexicon_ by Lubotsky) can help a bit too in your search. It doesn't give specific information for Kurdish, but here you find the Proto-Indo-Iranian form and cognates in other II languages. Be sure to change the encoding to 'Utf-8'.

Groetjes,

Frank


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## Alijsh

Kurdistanish said:


> Thank you, I'll compare the information to figure it out if Kurdish "nyg" is cognate with Slavic "noga" or not.


What is the Kurdish for "nail"? Slavic "noga" seems to be comparable with the Persian word for "nail" i.e. *nâxon* (nâkhon). What do you think?


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## Kanes

Is noga universal to most Slavic languages?


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## Athaulf

Kanes said:


> Is noga universal to most Slavic languages?



I'd be very surprised to find even a single one that doesn't have it. See the above link to Vasmer - it lists almost identical sounding cognates of this word in nearly all major Slavic languages.


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## Kanes

Athaulf said:


> I'd be very surprised to find even a single one that doesn't have it. See the above link to Vasmer - it lists almost identical sounding cognates of this word in nearly all major Slavic languages.


 
On Bulgarian legs = kraka


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## Athaulf

Kanes said:


> On In Bulgarian legs = kraka



Hm... interesting! Vasmer lists Bulgarian _нога_ as "dialectal". Is this word really absent from modern standard Bulgarian? Or does have a different meaning? 

By the way, this is an interesting false friend. In Croatian, _krak_ is used for exceptionally long limbs of animals, like e.g. the limbs of an octopus or the back legs of a frog. I've heard it used for human legs only jokingly, when talking about someone with exceptionally long legs.


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## Kanes

If it was there, it is absent now. We have similar one used sometimes in literature though, noze, but you wont hear someone using it when talking.

Clearly the Croation and our word are connected, plus almost the same meaning. For me krak sounds more logical because of the word for hand though. How do you say hand?


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## OldAvatar

Romanian has it too:

crac = leg (from the hip to the ankle);


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## Athaulf

Kanes said:


> If it was there, it is absent now. We have similar one used sometimes in literature though, noze, but you wont hear someone using it when talking.



Yes, that's certainly a cognate with _noga_ (I'd guess _нозе_ is plural, though). However, googling for _нога_ on Bulgarian pages, I got quite a few hits (see this search, for example), and I know this word is used in standard Macedonian. Are you sure that _нога_ doesn't exist at least as a dialectal or archaic word in Bulgarian? 



> Clearly the Croation and our word are connected, plus almost the same meaning. For me krak sounds more logical because of the word for hand though. How do you say hand?


In Croatian (and other BCS variants) it's _ruka_. If I'm not mistaken, it should be a cognate with Bulgarian _ръка_. I don't see how this would make _krak_ "more logical" than noga, though?


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## Kanes

Both are archaic in that case. The couple of results in the search you posted were 'national folk tales' and 'bulgarian poetry'. In contemporary speach or writing they are absent, and noga I have not even heard. Isn't it plural like noze btw? It sounds plural.

Tons of words are formed from the root of raka and krak, simplest example though is: _k*raka* = legs_ and _*raka* = hand._ Thats why seemed more logical then noze, plus there is no singular word for leg related to noze.


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## Duya

Kanes said:


> Tons of words are formed from the root of raka and krak, simplest example though is: _k*raka* = legs_ and _*raka* = hand._ Thats why seemed more logical then noze, plus there is no singular word for leg related to noze.



Could you please find a source demonstrating that _krak_ and _raka_ are cognates? I highly doubt it.


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## dihydrogen monoxide

Raka cognate with Slovene roka comes from PIE *uronkaH, in the end it means to grab.
Kraka cognate with Slovene krak comes from PIE *(s)ker 'to turn' and is related with Slovene kriv.


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## Darina

"Vasmer lists Bulgarian _нога_ as "dialectal"

It is typical for Western Bulgarian dialects. My grandmother says "noga", but she uses "nogi" for plural, not "noze".

The word is not only dialectal but also archaic, poetic and used at some expresions, for example the military command: "pushki pri noze", meaning "ground arms". 

From all this information I can only conclude that Kanes is a young boy from Eastern Bulgaria who has not been a soldier yet. 

As for the entimology of "крак", I think it can be a shorter version of "крайник".


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## Palisto

Alijsh said:


> What is the Kurdish for "nail"? Slavic "noga" seems to be comparable with the Persian word for "nail" i.e. *nâxon* (nâkhon). What do you think?





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*_*nengū*_*Kurdish*_*nînok, neynûk*_Sogdian_n’γ’n
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## bibax

Darina said:


> It is typical for Western Bulgarian dialects. My grandmother says "noga", but she uses "nogi" for plural, not "noze".


(Dvě) nozě looks like dual, not plural.


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## Ben Jamin

Kurdistanish said:


> Hi everybody,
> 
> I wanted to know abt the etymology of Slavic word for "foot"~"noga", "nog"*, etc. In Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji dialect) there is "nyg" for *"foot"* besides current "pe"/"pi". Do Slavic "noga" and Kurdish "nyg" share same root?
> 
> Thanx


I would like to make you aware that "noga" means actually "leg", not "foot". Foot is called "stopa" or "stopalo" in most Slavic languages. When this is said, we should notice that the word "noga"  includes the foot, and in colloquial use you may hear  (at least in Polish) "I have pain in my legs" while actually the pain is in the feet. The same is valid for other colloquial expressions like "to have shoes on one's legs", in opposition to English usage, which strictly distinguishes between legs and feet. Using an expression like "I put my shoes on my *feet*" would sound strange and pedantic in Polish. In some fixed expressions, however, like "a land not touched by a human foot" the word foot is always used.


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## Christo Tamarin

Darina said:


> As for the entimology of "крак", I think it can be a shorter version of "крайник".


No. The word "крак" has a separare Slavic root and has cognates in Russian, e.g.: окорок.


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