A Slovene-Prussian Lexical-Mythological Parallel: kres / kresze
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3986/SLS.1.1.10Keywords:
Slavic languages, Slovene language, Slovenian language, Prussian language, Lexicology, Etymology, Indo-European, Baltic languages, mythologyAbstract
In three 15th-century German sources concerning certainly Baltic (chiefly Prussian) pagan customs, the term Kresze 'a pagan feast' is mentioned (the other two forms mentioned are keyse, krysze). This form is comparable to the Slavic *krěs’b and also with the Slovene krês 'ogenj pred 24. junijem', which means primarily a pagan feast. The etymology is not fully clear, because the ancient Baltic word must have had an other form. The traditional hypothesis considers the Prussian Kresze as an earlier Slavic (Old-Polish?) lexeme. Two other etymological explanations of this word are less certain, but they have never been definitively refuted.
The parallel kresze/krês is interesting especially on a mythological and ritual level. We may assume that the Prussian kresze corresponds to the Slovene pagan ritual krês, krêsovânje. Such a parallel would prove the primary sacred character of the stem *kres- for all the Balto-Slavic area and confirm the theory that the Slovene form is archaic, where the stem *kres- has maintained more of its primary meanings than in other Slavic languages.
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