Finno-permic phytonymical portraits: cow vetch (Vicia cracca)

In this paper, the author examines all common names of cow vetch (Vicia cracca) in a group of European Finno-Ugric languages. In these languages there are more than 100 such names, the vast majority of which are composite words made of two or three components. The majority of such names can be found in Baltic Finnish languages. Many of them include determinants of the nomination object class, for example, ‘grass’, ‘pod’. Many of these names do not refer only to cow vetch, but also to a number of other leguminous plants, such as spring vetch and bush vetch. The last component of such phytonyms often has a meaning ‘peas’. Comparison of cow vetch and peas looks naturally because these plants are very similar to each other, just the cow vetch looks smaller. First components of many cow vetch’ names are zoosemizms - names of different animals; in most of the cases those are names of a mouse or a crane. The role of the mouse asan animal in the nomination of Vicia cracca is significant, especially in the Finnish-Permic and Russian languages, and cannot yet be fully explained. The obvious explanation is that the miniatureness of the mouse corresponds with that of the cow vetch’s pods. Names of cow vetch’ can often also include the names of crane, or other animals: sheep, crow, snake, cat, cuckoo, grasshopper, rooster etc. Formation of such composite plant’s names can be different in varisous cases.