Reminds me of Polish smykać = biec szybko, uciekać; przemykać, umykać, czmychać
(Zając smyknął im spod nóg.)
Berislav Horvatic wrote:Look at the Proto-Slavic root *smukъ and its derivations in various Slavic languages.
Ilian Velikov wrote:Don't get me wrong I was not saying that the root is NOT Slavic but simply that the argument you gave was not enough to prove that the word is Slavic. It might be that it originates from somewhere else in both languages. It's like saying the word "porta" in Catalan means "door", and its pronunciation and meaning in Bulgarian are exactly the same, so the word has Slavic roots.
Besides, Proto-Slavic by definition is an Indo-European language which includes all modern languages spoken today in Europe as well as half of the ones spoken in Asia. So who knows maybe "smok" has it's origins in some ancient Persian dialect...or maybe not. It's hard to tell.
Berislav Horvatic wrote:Reminds me of Polish smykać = biec szybko, uciekać; przemykać, umykać, czmychać
(Zając smyknął im spod nóg.)
A slavic dragon is any dragon in Slavic mythology, including the Russian zmei (or zmey; змей), known in the Ukraine as zmiy (змій, pl. ), and its counterparts in other Slavic cultures: the Bulgarian zmei (змей), the Polish żmij, the Serbian and Croatian zmaj (Serbian: змај, Croatian). The Romanian zmeu is also a slavic dragon, but a non-cognate etymology has been proposed.
A zmei may be beast-like or human-like, sometimes wooing women, but often plays the role of chief antagonist in Russian literature. In the Balkans, the zmei type is overall regarded as benevolent, as opposed to malevolent dragons known variously as lamia, ala' or hala, or aždaja.
The Polish smok (e.g. Wawel Dragon of Kraków) or the Ukrainian or Belarussian smok (смок), tsmok (цмок), can also be included. In some Slavic traditions smok is an ordinary snake which may turn into a dragon with age.
You said "In many (maybe all?) present-day Slavic languages big Colubers are named as something moving swiftly, gliding, dashing - which certainly makes sense as a description." Are you saying that this is the meaning of the word "smok"?
Michal Szkudlarek wrote:"Smok" here means "dragon" and "smok" is probably a mutation of "smykać" what means "to flee".
Michal Szkudlarek wrote:You said "In many (maybe all?) present-day Slavic languages big Colubers are named as something moving swiftly, gliding, dashing - which certainly makes sense as a description." Are you saying that this is the meaning of the word "smok"?
Sorry for interrupting but let me give Polish point of view. "Smok" here means "dragon" and "smok" is probably a mutation of "smykać" what means "to flee".
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