Talk:Bodach

Etymology

The bodach vs. botach forms create a confusing situation. Both are Old Irish. It appears to be undisputed that the etymology is from bot "penis"(?) But in the context of Irish feudalism, the botach (never(?) bodach) class is unambiguously derived from both "cottage" (presumably coined as the equivalent of cottier). Was this some kind of rude pun? Or a coincidence?

So, the "penis" etymology suggests "man" > "some random guy" > "random idiot, churl, boorish lout" > "rustic, peasant" etc., while the "cottage" etymology suggests "tenant farmer" > "random peasant" > "rustic, peasant", "churl, lout" etc. Both etymologies are entirely compatible with the sense (both, words for penis becoming derogatory or affectionate terms for lower-class males, and terms for peasant farmers becoming generic terms for boorish clowns etc., are well attested with many parallels). But the etymologies are completely incompatible. Perhaps the key is that the "penis" word became bodach and the "tenant" word remained botach in Middle Irish? Creating a divisinon between senses even though there would clearly have been mutual influence?

For the purposes of the mythological/folkloristic bodach, there is the further problem of boadach, which appears to have been completely distinct in Old Irish, but may have become poorly understood in Middle or Early Modern Irish. So that suddenly, the eternal king of fairyland instead of being "the victorious one" was reported as "a rustic clown". It would then have been natural to resolve the cognitive dissonance by means of a trickster-in-disguise episode. --dab (𒁳) 09:40, 10 September 2015 (UTC)

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