From Proto-Indo-European *pérkus (“oak”), from the root *perkʷ- (“oak”).
The semantic development from “(oak) tree” to “life; the universe”, assuming they are indeed related, is somewhat puzzling, but may be paralleled in part by such abstractions as Ancient Greek ὕλη (húlē, “wood”, later “substance”), Latin māteria (“timber; material, source, essence”) and Old Armenian տարր (tarr, “elementary substance”, from *dru- (“wood, tree”)); the sense “body” (compare Punjabi ਕਾਠ (kāṭh, “timber; body, physique”)) would be intermediate and abstractify to “life”. However, the explanation may be more spiritual; as Kroonen describes, “the oak-tree symbolized vitality in Germanic mythology.” Note also the concept of the world tree, pervasive in Eurasian mythology, which to the Indo-Europeans was a large oak at the center of the world, and perhaps the axis around which the Earth or heavens spun (axis mundi).
singular | plural | |
---|---|---|
nominative | *ferhuz | *ferhiwiz |
vocative | *ferhu | *ferhiwiz |
accusative | *ferhų | *ferhunz |
genitive | *ferhauz | *ferhiwǫ̂ |
dative | *ferhiwi | *ferhumaz |
instrumental | *ferhū | *ferhumiz |