Ocra — an Etymological Proposal

Abstract

The ancient name of the mountain (pass) that lies at the junction of the Julian and Dinaric Alps (nowadays Mt Nanos and the adjoining Razdrto Pass in southwestern Slovenia) is attested as Ocra in Latin (Pliny) and ῎Oκρα in Greek sources (Strabo, Ptolemy). The name is surely Italic and is argued to go back to Proto-Indo-European *H2ok̑reH2- (to *H2ek̑ - ‘to be/become/make sharp’). Given that an o-grade root is not expected in a deverbal adjective in -ro- (i.e. *H2ek̑-ró- ‘sharp’), such a formation is only interpretable as a substantivized feminine form of the possessive adjective *H2ok̑-r-ó- ‘sharp,’ derived from an acrostatic heteroclite neuter abstract noun *H2ók̑-r-/*H2ék̑-n- ‘sharpness.’ As such, Ocra ~ ῎Oκρα is the only unambiguous evidence for the existence of a deverbal abstract with o : e ablaut in Proto-Indo-European. In the addendum a brief etymological account is given of the place-name Acumincum ~ Acimincum from Pannonia Inferior, which likewise goes back ultimately to the PIE root *H2ek̑ -, arguing in favour of the Ptolemaic variant with Acu- (as opposed to Aci-) as the forma difficilior. The proposed etymology starts from PIE *H2ek̑-m̥n-o- > *akumno- ‘rock’ + *-enko- (*akumnenko- ‘rocky (place)’), from which *akumenko- > *akuminko- would then be produced by simple regressive dissimilation.