Once Again About the Troublesome Etymology o f the Nome łochynia

Abstract

In the present paper the author puts forward a new proposal of the etymology of the botanic name tochynia 'vaccinium uliginosum'. Thus she enters a discussion with what has been settled so far in this matter: by F. Sławski, namely that (w)łochynia owes its name to young twigs which are shaggy (hairy) (SISE V 132), 2. by A. Bańkowski who claims that (w)łochynia means Gypsy’s (wołoska in Polish) berry, since Gypsies fed on the fruit of this plant (JP 1986 pp. 306-313), 3. by A. Steffen who says that (w)łochynia is a borrowing from the Ukrainian hluchyńa and means 'drunkard' (JP 1968 pp. 136-138), by B. Matuszczyk who proves that łochynia (regarding włochynia as a secondary name) means as much as 'boggy', because we mean here a plant which grows in peat bogs and in boggy forests. The morpheme łoch- which we come across in such toponymie names as Łochyńsko, Łochynia, Łochówek, Łochnica denoting water tanks or sites situated nearby water (cf. Middle-High German lache 'pool, boggy area'), and the suffix -ynja, present in this name, served most often to create the names of plants.