The Croatian Hydronym and Choronym Líka and its Presumed Relatives Lech, Liẽkė, etc.

Abstract

The Croatian hydronym and choronym Lika is often mentioned together with the hydronym Lech (Austria, Bavaria) and with a group of Lithuanian and Latvian hydronyms and other toponyms and appellatives. They are all presumed to be based on the PIE root *(h1)lek- ‘to bend’. Despite the fact that this root is not even mentioned in Julius Pokorny’s Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (1959), researchers have taken it for granted for decades and used it for etymologizing onyms. It is clear now that this root does not exist. This article will show that the Croatian hydronym and choronym Líka and the Baltic onyms and appellatives are derived from the PIE root *u̯leku̯- ‘to be(come) moist, to moisten’ and are not etymologically related to the name Lech, which is derived from the PIE root *pleh2k- ‘to strike, to flatten’.

Keywords

• Old European hydronymy
• Slavic hydronymy
• Celtic hydronymy
• ghost-roots
• historical phonology