Primario y secundario en los nombres vascos de los metales

Abstract

The intention behind this work is an in-depth study of sorne Basque names for metals, setting out from the fact that different etyma exist. The Castilian work for copper, cobre, from the Latin cuprum referring to Cyprus, is evident in the common Basque denomination for chis metal. On a second plane is the lexis of compound words like burdin-gorri, urre-antz, urraida, etc. and on a third level stands out the existence of the nuclei tupíki / topiki and okain as terms of origin. Likewise, words such as zilar and burdín are included in the scudy, with an extremely different assessment of aucochchonous etyma unreplaced by words alien to che language.

The possibility chat ancient forms might be relaced to cerminology belonging wholly to the "meteoric iron", as happens in other cultures, and, more specifically, to elements from lunar terminology is not left out.

Finally, the replacement of the local lexis by che alíen kobre might be relaced, in the opinion of the author, to the obligatory importation of this metal from Spain; and the uniform conservation of che term burdin in ali Basque dialects, on the other hand, might reflect the condition of producer and exporter of chis metal, tradicional to the Basque nación.