ETÜMOLOOGILISI MÄRKMEID (VIII)
Etymological Notes (VIII)

Summary/Abstract: The article presents etymologies for the Estonian words hakkama, nakkama, agar and õgima, demonstrating that 1) the verb hakkama (dial. haagama, hagima etc.) ’to begin’ (dial. ’to grasp’ etc.) is a Baltic loan (< Baltic *šºak-, cf. Latv. sºakt ’to begin’; 2) the South-Estonian verb nakkama, of the same meaning, is also a Baltic loan, based on the same Baltic verb *šºak- with a prefix *en- ~ …n- cf. Latv. iesºakt ’to begin’; 3) the ’grasp etc.’ meanings of the verbs hakkama and nakkama can be explained as translation loans from Middle Low German, as in German both concepts ’to begin’ and ’to grasp’ are expressed by one and the same root; 4) the word agar ’active; eager’, which is synonymous with the agent noun hakkaja from the verb hakkama, derives from a variant (*hagama) of the latter verb; 5) it is not quite impossible that the word õgima (cf. dial. agima, õgima) may be based on the derivative hagima of the same verb *hagama, but the relation is disputable; a plausible alternative interpretation has been suggested by Julius Mägiste (EEW 2000: 4008).

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