blekъ

blekъ Grammatical information: m. o

Page in Trubačev: II 109

Czech:

blek `bleating' [m o]

Upper Sorbian:

blek `henbane' [m o];

blik `henbane' [m o]

Serbo-Croatian:

blȇk `bleating' [m o]

Slovene:

blę́k `flock (of sheep)' [m o]

Bulgarian:

blek (dial.) `henbane' [m o]

Indo-European reconstruction: bʰlek-o-

Page in Pokorny: 157

Comments: The semantic connection between *blek(ot)ъ as the name of various poisonous plants and *blekotъ `chatter, chatterer' is the fact that particularly henbane may cause a delirium, cf. Ru. (dial.) belenít'sja `become infuriated', SCr. belèna `fool' from *belena `henbane', or the Polish expression brodzi, jakby się blekotu (`fool's parsley') objadɫ, which equals Cz. jako by se blínu napil. I am inclined to consider the verbs *blekati `chatter, mutter, bleat' and *blekotati derivatives of *blekъ and *blekotъ rather than vice versa (pace Trubačëv). The development of a meaning `bleat' may have been favoured by the onomatopoeic qualities of the root. Alternatively, we could distinguish a separate onomatopoeic root *blek- `bleat' or even separate *blek- `henbane' from *blek- `chatter, mutter'. Pokorny erroneously classifies Ru. blëkotъ `fool's parsley' under *bʰleiq- `shine'.