Horsa and Hengist

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Pat Holscher
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Posts: 7553
Joined: Thu Nov 30, 2000 6:51 pm
Last Name: Holscher

In the category of odds and ends I've run across recently, Horsa (after whom the British WWII glider was named) and Hengist are, according to legend, were the Angle, Saxon, or Jute pioneers in the conquest of England from the native British. Anyhow, Horsa translates as "Horse" and Hengist as "Stallion".

Sort of an interesting item. Assuming that the two brothers were real folks, it makes you wonder if their parents had named them after horses, or whether these were nicknames or just erroneous names.

FWIW, people don't have a good idea of the origin of the word "horse". It isn't the Proto Indo European word for horse, that word surviving in various Indo European languages in the world "equine" and related words.
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