‘Mushroom’ and ‘Toadstool’ in Indo-Iranian

George Morgenstierne

doi:10.1017/S0041977X0006198X

‘Mushroom’ and ‘Toadstool’ in Indo-Iranian

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 December 2009

George Morgenstierne

Article contents

Extract
References

Get access

Rights & Permissions

Extract

In their learned and sumptuously illustrated work Mushrooms, Russia and history, Valentina Pavlovna Wasson and K. Gordon Wasson have given a comprehensive and fascinating survey of mushroom lore. All kinds of traditions and conceits connected with fungi have here been discussed, together with the often picturesque and fanciful, sometimes unsavoury names denoting them in many diverse languages. The etymologies are frequently quite clear, and give a good clue to the understanding of the strikingly parallel reactions evoked everywhere by ‘the rich world of mushrooms and toadstools’. Other words are of uncertain origin, and in some cases we come across resemblances between words from unrelated and unconnected languages, which the philologist may be inclined to ascribe to ‘mirages linguistiques’.

Type: Articles
Information: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , February 1957 , pp. 451 - 457

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X0006198X [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1957

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

^{page 451 note 1} Vols. I, II, New York, Pantheon Books, 1957.

^{page 451 note 2} Wasson, op. cit., 103, 362.

^{page 451 note 3} Following Turner, ND, I shall use c, j for the palatal affricates, also in Dardic and Ir., and ċ for the dental affricate.

^{page 452 note 1} Bodding, , A Santal dictionary, IV, 481:Google Scholar ‘Most fungi are called ot, some are excepted, and these are considered animate’.

^{page 452 note 2} For the ‘snake’ complex, cf. Wasson, 104, 374.

^{page 452 note 3} cf. bhūmi-kandaka (v. 4); Hi. dhartī kā phūl (v. 16); Prs. kulāh-i zamīn (v. 2); gūš(t)-i zamīn (v. 8, 9); Psht. zməkəī γwa^xa.

^{page 452 note 4} Not, with Wasson, 159, ‘phallus’.

^{page 452 note 5} Certainly not < Ir. ٭hwambā, cf. Swed. svamp ‘mushroom’: etc.

^{page 453 note 1} Acc. to an informant in Persepolis it grows in the steppe after lightning.

^{page 453 note 2} Wasson, 121.

^{page 453 note 3} Nevark (Jardine, Bahdinan Kurd.) is probably due to a misprint.

^{page 453 note 4} Wasson, 173.

^{page 453 note 5} ‘Issued from the earth at the noise of thunder’.

^{page 453 note 6} Wasson, 230.

^{page 453 note 7} Prs. dialect from the neighbourhood of Semnan.

^{page 453 note 8} Wasson, 154.

^{page 454 note 1} But Or. kukura-mūtā ‘tulasī (plant)’.

^{page 455 note 1} Wasson, 121.

^{page 455 note 2} But scarcely Ragh. XIII, 29, cf. PW, s.v. ‘vielleicht Pilz’.

^{page 455 note 3} Wasson, 66.

^{page 455 note 4} cf. Lorimer, , The Burushaski language, I, 5:Google Scholar ‘Personally I have experienced a difficulty in certainly distinguishing č (read: j from č j š ž ’.

^{page 455 note 5} Wasson, 120

^{page 456 note 1} Morgenstierne, Yidgha-Munji phonology, § 121 (IIFL, II, p. 79).

^{page 456 note 2} Studien, 51 sq., cf. Boisacq, s.v.

Article contents

‘Mushroom’ and ‘Toadstool’ in Indo-Iranian

Extract

Access options

References

Save article to Kindle

Save article to Dropbox

Save article to Google Drive

Reply to: Submit a response

Your details

You have entered the maximum number of contributors

Conflicting interests