Of Sneaky, Creeping, Thieving Little Creatures

Sometimes when I look at the moronic stuff that is written in Slavic academic literature, I begin to wonder whether low-IQ folks somehow unable to find employment end up synecured at Slavic universities.

Take the word skrzat which means as much as a little woodland elf or a little hidden household creature, in the sense of a hearth protector. The word, attested, in all Slavic languages is, derived, from the German Schratt, traced to the Old High German scrato (also, schrat, schrate, schretel(in)). Trouble is that the word is not present in most Slavic languages but it is not present in other Germanic languages. So how is a word present in all Slavic languages derived from a word present in some Germanic languages? I mean, if the reverse were true, then our professors would have (usually correctly) concluded that the word is of Germanic origin. But, as already discussed, there is no parallelism here at all. The reason that Slavic scholars are willing to adopt these ridiculous positions is because they have extremely low self-esteem (which, in turn, might have something to do with their low IQs).

But, they say, there are Germanic words that are cognate! Really? Let’s see:

Well, there is skratti – this Icelandic word that means a “demon”. Ok, what kind of a demon? Big, little, appearing at nighttime? We do not know because the word expresses no meaning whatsoever. It itself is derived from Old Norse skratti (same) which means? No one knows but it is derived from the Proto-Germanic *skrattuz which is supposed to mean: “to shrink, wither, dry out, crinkle, wimple.” That might make sense if you think of a skrzat as an old, wrinkly face but the trouble is that *skrattuz is just made up. No such word, much less its meaning, has ever been attested. The word is just made up (hence the “*” symbol).

There is also scrat – an English which means as much as “to scratch” or “rake”. I suppose you can tray to rationalize an old wrinkly face as having been scratched but that is a bit of a stretch. Moreover, that English word is, supposedly, related to the Swedish kratt which does not mean a goblin or any creature but simply, again, a “rake”. The only thing that is interesting here is that the English version – if it is really derived from the Swedish – suggests that adding an “s” or “z” to a verb was a Germanic, as well as Slavic, phenomenon (compare grac > zgrac or pieprzyc > spieprzyc). (But we will go back to this kratt momentarily in its Estonian version).

What else? How about the Gothic skreitan? Except that that means “to shred,” “to tear.” There is no evident connection to any goblins. Swedish skräda? That means “to mince.” In other words, much the same as to shred.

What about Slavic languages?

Well, we have skřítek which, in Czech, means a small, hidden, creature. Unlike the Germanic words, the name is completely explainable from Slavic as someone who is “hidden” from the Slavic kryty and hence > skryty. A “little” hidden person is, therefore, endowed with the -ek suffix and, thereby, becomes a noun.

But if “i” does not work, how about the “a” versions? Well, there is the Polish kraść meaning “to steal”. He stole is written skradł. Here I would like to take a detour and return to kratt from above. It turns out that kratt means “a creature which steals various items” for its owner… in Estonian. Crazy? Well, how about, a connection to the Scrittifini – (hidden Finni/Veni?) a people that keeps showing up in the area of Poland in almost every ancient geographical description of the area.

But there is another candidate with explanatory power – skradać się –  which means “to sneak”, “to creep”, “to slink.”

The point is that any one of these etymologies is sufficient to explain precisely the meaning of skrzat:

  • hidden
  • stealing
  • sneaking

little creature. (Note too that in both Germanic and Slavic languages the creature is little such that the word is synonymous with that concept).

This too makes much more sense. When the Scandinavians came down from, well, Scandinavia, they were – likely – largely young warriors without women. The Venetic women they captured would tell their children about the little skrzats.

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September 1, 2018

3 thoughts on “Of Sneaky, Creeping, Thieving Little Creatures

  1. Anastazja

    Skrzat lives between Skrzyp growing on the meadow under trees where Srzypiace,Szeleszczace leaves like Skrzypce playing notes dressed in Skrzacie Szaty,making himher Skarlowacialym Szczatkiem of valuable memories.Love my mothers language,being able to understand so many languages because of that primery knowledge.Thank you for your articles.

    Reply
  2. Guślarz

    ” Scrittifini – (hidden Finni/Veni?) a people that keeps showing up in the area of Poland in almost every ancient geographical description of the area.”

    What sources do you have in mind?

    When it comes to Geographer’s of Ravenna Scirdifrini I think it comes from *Scindi which comes from scindere – rwać – to rend and is the name of Obo Drzyce who are also known as Rondingos (Widsith,to rend), Urwege (Annales Pegaviensis), Na Dva Narvali (Tacitus), Diduni (Ptolemy) – and this name relates to zodiacal Gemini, and it’s chief diety are Lelki/Alki – the Gemini.

    Geographer of Ravenna could have mixed *Scindi with other people (Screrefennae of Jordanes?).

    Anyway it is easy to tell what Skrzat really is based on. The third eye. It is not only hidden -skryte, but as it relates to scorpio – astrologically it “shortens” time, unlike taurus which “lenghtens” it. So word skrót is related to skrzat.
    Word Secret comes from it: Kryć-> skryć ->skryty ->secret

    Other word which etymologists try hard to derive from deutsche, is Szlachta. The source is quite simple: Ślak like sanskrit shloka, which would be a line (szlak, ślaczek) of ancestry. Moreover ślak has also deeper astrological connection to sign of pisces, and its god Rod. I explained it here. ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5J8vI74YDA If you have questions aboout it ask there.

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