Basque ote, ota “gorse”
Gorse is one of a group of closely related shrubs that belong to the pea family. It is characterised by multiple spines and a bright yellow flower that blooms irregularly throughout the year. There are around 15 species of gorse. The best-known and most widespread is Ulex europaeus (“common gorse”). In Europe, gorse is confined to the Atlantic fringe, running all the way down from Scotland to Madeira. It is typically to be seen on lowland heath and unimproved moorland. Often, it grows in close proximity to bracken and heather. Because gorse has such a limited geographical distribution, there is no common Indo-European word for “gorse”. Indeed, there is no common Romance word for “gorse”, there is no common Germanic word for “gorse”, and there is no common Insular Celtic word for “gorse”. The foregoing analysis would predict that Vasconic also has no common word for “gorse”, and the available evidence strongly suggests this.
Azkue lists the following:
ote (G, AN-Baztan-Lezaka), othe (L, BN, Z) “gorse”
ota (B) “gorse”
otar (B-Gernika, L-Ainhoa), “hard gorse (?), male gorse (?)”
othar (BN-Amikuse-Garazi, Z) “big gorse (?)”
oteme (B-Gernika) “species of gorse without spines, female gorse (?)”
Azkue also lists (R-Uztarroz) ote “line of seeds in an ear of corn”, and (BN-Baztan) oti “first bud of a plant”, both of which I believe to be internally cognate with the above, as we shall see shortly.
Basque oti “grasshopper” and the hearsay prefix, ote-, are probably distinct homonyms.
The forms, otar, othar and oteme have been misanalysed by Azkue. This is not Azkue’s fault. Azkue knew little or nothing of Iberian and Vasconic languages further afield. The data that would have put him right on this point were simply not in front of him. oteme arose from a folk etymological misunderstanding of otar, othar. There is no such thing as “hard gorse” as far as I know. otar, othar probably refers to a gorse thicket. Individual gorse shrubs are very rarely freestanding. The -ar in otar, othar is the fossilised collective suffix, *-(a)r. In Iberian, *-(a)r exhibited fortis final /r/, whereas -ar “male” exhibited lenis final /r/. In Basque, the two have coalesced. otar “gorse thicket” was present in Iberian (see below).
Basque ota, ote is the only Basque word for “gorse” that I can find. Was it present in Iberian? Indeed it was. Consider the following:
UTTARIS, a mutatio listed on the Antonine Itinerary somewhere in the Galicia or Leon regions: Iberian *utar or *otar “gorse thicket”.
AUTRAKA, a place listed only by Ptolemy, somewhere in the Burgos region: *autar-aka “place of the gorse thicket”. This would have become *Otarraga in the modern language. /o/ and /au/ had a high degree of interchangeability in the Cantabria and Asturias regions. AUTRAKA is probably the source of the ethnonym, AUTRIGONES (from *Autrigo, a variant of *Autaraka).
There is no suggestion of masculinity in either of the above.
Does Basque ote, ota have cognates in other Vasconic languages further afield? Probably. Consider the following:
Welsh eithen “gorse” (usually in the plural form, eithin), Old Irish aitenn “juniper”, a probable loanword from British Vasconic. The surprise here is that the semantic movement from a grass-like plant to a prickly shrub has also occurred in British Vasconic. English did not inherit this word, but took up instead a word meaning “holly” (see below).
English oats, the grass-like serial crop (Avena sativa), a probable loanword from British Vasconic. What possible connection does oats have with gorse? Well, consider (R-Uztarroz) ote “line of grains in an ear of corn”. Might this have been the earlier meaning of ote, ota, before the first Vascophones arrived in Iberia following the melting of the ice, discovered gorse and had to find a word for it? In prehistoric times, grass was not the manicured or closely cropped stuff that one finds on lawns or in meadows. It was often waist high and grew in clumps in spaces in the wildwood where there was sufficient light. Gorse would have grown in similar situations, possibly in places where trees had difficulty establishing themselves, such as clifftops and rocky outcrops. English oats was first recorded in 1000 as ate “grain of the oat plant”. It has no Germanic cognates.
Does Basque ote, ota have variants that exhibit the fossilised phytonymic class prefixes, *g= and *m=?
I am aware of one possible instance of *g-ote, and that is the toponym, Gotein (Soule). This might be *g-ote-ain “place where gorse grows”. However, an alternative interpretation is *gon-t-ain “place of the height” (the final /n/ of Iberian gon “height” was often lost in compounds, and /t/d/ is a frequent connective in -ain toponyms).
As for *m=, Azkue lists the following:
mota (B-Lekeitio-Markina) “steep bank, section of land covered in grass that surrounds sown fields”
mota (B-Mundaka) “flower bud”
motta (AN) “crest of a bird, tuft”
motabedar (Ms Lond) “tansy”
mote (G-Usurbil) “flower bud”, (G) “shoot, bud of a tree”
moto (B-Oñate, G, BN-Aldude-L-Ainhoa), motho (BN, Z) “bun, crest of a bird”
moto (G) “pigtail”
moto (BN-Amikuse-Bardos, Z) “child’s beret”
motto (AN-Baztan, L-Ainhoa, R) “crest of a bird”
motots (G-Andoain-Aia-Donostia-Etxarri-Aranaz-Tolosa-Usurbil) “crest of a bird”, (G-Alegi) “head of hair”
mototx (G-Urnieta) “head of hair”
Basque mota “species, race” is probably a distinct homonym.
The above are problematic. Some of them refer directly to plant buds or shoots (many Basque words do), while others refer to the crest of a bird, in a direct or extended sense (ie, human hair). All of these are consistent, or just about consistent, with words for grass-like plants. There is certainly very good reason to regard them as internally cognate with Basque (R-Uztarroz) ote “line of seeds in an ear of corn”, and (BN-Baztan) oti “first bud of a plant”. It seems that Iberian took its word for “gorse” from a word for a grass-like plant.
The first meaning cited above, (“steep bank, etc”), bears a possible resemblance to French motte “artificial mound of earth that supports a wooden fortification”, a word with no identifiable Latin or Germanic antecedence.
However, the actual recorded usage of the word suggests that it has more to do with grass than geomorphology:
“Etxe-aurreko mota edo bedartzea…”
“Lur landuak, zelai eta motak, larrak, basoak…”
Latin ulex, ulicis, which serves as the botanical name for the gorse family, does not actually mean “gorse” in Latin. Rather, it refers to some other prickly shrub. Gorse is not native to Italy, so few ancient Romans would have been familiar with it.
Latin ulex, ulicis is likely to be a substrate loanword from Italian Vasconic. Compare the following Basque words (listed by Azkue):
mullo (G-Andoain, R-Uztarroz) “a grass without a flower that grows in both shady and open places”
mullo (G-Andoain) “shrub, scrub”
mullo (B-Markina) “stalks in a bunch of grapes”
mulu (B-Markina, G) “shrub, scrub”
This group of words seems to derive from a Proto-Vasconic *uLo, *uLu, and carries the fossilised phytonymic class prefix, *m=, though in Italian Vasconic it exists in its freestanding form. It is possible that the substantive part of this word can exist in freestanding form in Iberian. There is an anthroponymic compound element, ULO, that is recorded in the Roman Script in the Upper Garonne region. Of course, we cannot be certain of its meaning. Consider the following:
CIL 13, 00170
ULOHOXO ULUCIRRIS
English gorse has no Germanic cognates. It was recorded as gorst in 950. It is likely that English gorse is a substrate loanword from a British Vasconic word cognate with Basque gorosti “holly” (a prickly tree).