Kaabakas, kabajantsik ja nood taolised

Kaabakas, kabajantsik, and the like… Keywords: linguistics, affective words, names for unlikable persons, names for animals, names for supernatural forces, distribution, origin, formation, Estonian language This article examines common names for persons and supernatural beings with negative connotations in the Estonian language. These names are thought to originate from either onomatopoeic-descriptive roots or (as the author prefers) affective stems, the protoforms of which can be reconstructed as *ka(a)p(p)-. The analysis covers their distribution across Estonian subdialects, written texts, and runic songs. It also considers the etymology of these terms and tries to approach them from a somewhat novel perspective. Noun derivatives of the *ka(a)p(p)– protostem are found in all Estonian dialects. While their prevalence seems to vary between dialects, a closer examination (Table 1) reveals that the largest number of derivative forms are present in the Mulgi and northeast coastal dialects, with the central dialect showing the least variety. Other dialects, on average, have one recorded derivative per subdialect. Among the 20 words analyzed, which refer to either persons or supernatural beings, kaabakas ‘tough; villain; hooligan’ is the most widespread, appearing in 54 subdialects. This is followed by kaapjalg ‘thief; tramp; lame horse; haunting ghost’ in 20 subdialects, and kabajantsik ‘rogue, rascal’ in 13 subdialects (Table 2). The remaining terms occur in one or two subdialects each. Nine of the *ka(a)p(p)– stem nouns describe solely humans, with meanings such as ‘tough’, ‘rogue’ (kaabask, kaaberdus, kaabert, kaaberts, kaaper, kaavakas, kabajantsik, raatskaaper; although kontkaabakas can also mean ‘uninvited guest’); five words refer solely to supernatural entities such as ‘ghost’ and ‘devil’ (kaabajalg, kaabasjalg, kapatjalg, kapats, öökaaper); two words refer to both humans and animals (kabujalg ‘maiden; young man; lively child; hen’, kabusjalg ‘agile child or horse’); one lexeme applies to both persons and supernatural beings (kaabakas); one word refers to a person, animal, or supernatural being (kaapjalg); one lexeme is used to describe animals and supernatural beings (kappjalg ‘horse with white legs; ghost’); and one term refers solely to animals (kabik ‘little hen’). Polysemantic words, the different meanings of which have been recorded across a small number of subdialects, thus remain an exception. Etymologically, most of these words (13–14) are der