Date: Sun, 3 Dec 1995 11:52:53 -0700

From: Rudy Troike RTROIKE[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU

Subject: Re: /w/ and /hw/



If English whore derives from Latin karus , it must be as a loan-

word, much too late for Grimm's Law. So then it should be *core , which it

ain't. So much for armchair etymologizing. In such questions, my sainted

OE professor, Rudolph Willard, used to repair to the OED, which informs us

that OE had hore (possibly derived from ON), and that the wh spelling is

a 16-th century refinement (I would guess on the model of whole ). But any

connection with a Latin /k/ would have to be at a pre-Latin level, not a

direct borrowing.

--Rudy Troike (back in the fray again!)