Slavic *komonjь and Its Probable Celtic Source

Abstract

The main purpose of the present study is to demonstrate that besides the traditional Balto-Slavic etymology of Slavic *komonjь ‘riding horse’, based on the Baltic designation of ‘bridle’, there is an alternative, identifying in the Slavic word an adaptation of the syntagm ‘horse of road’ > ‘riding horse’, expressed in a hypothetical Celtic source from Central Europe as *epos (? *ekwos) or *markos *kammanios, with the following ellipsis of the word for ‘horse’.