초록 열기/닫기 버튼

본고는 ‘나무’ 이름을 국어 어휘사의 관점에서 검토하여 궁극적으로는 그 어원을 밝히고자 하는 일련의 노력 가운데 하나이다. 본고에서 다룬 나무 이름은 ‘개암나무, 곰솔, 구기자나무, 물푸레나무’이다. ‘개암나무’에 대해서는 ‘개암’이 접두사 ‘개-’와 명사 ‘밤[栗]’의 결합체인 ‘*개ᄫᅡᆷ’에서 온 것이라는 기존의 설을 비판하고, 기원형 ‘*개ᄀᆞᆷ’이 ‘*개ᄋᆞᆷ’을 거쳐 나온 어형임을 추정하였다. ‘곰솔’에 대해서는 ‘곰’을 ‘熊’이나 ‘大’의 뜻으로 보는 기존의 설을 비판하고, 형용사 어간 ‘검-[黑]’의 변화형으로 간주하였다. 곧 기원형을 ‘검솔’로 잡고, 이것이 ‘곰솔’로 변한 것으로 파악하여 나무껍질이 검은색이어서 붙여진 이름으로 해석하였다. ‘구기자나무’에 대해서는 열매 이름 ‘구기자(枸杞子)’와 ‘나무’가 결합된 형태로 보고 ‘구기자가 달리는 나무’로 해석하였다. ‘구기자나무’ 이전에 ‘구긔(枸杞)’와 ‘구긔나모’, 그리고 열매 이름에서 나무 이름으로 전용된 ‘구긔ᄌᆞ’가 있었는데, 이들이 현대국어에 ‘구기, 구기나무, 구기자’로 이어졌으나 ‘구기나무’는 현재 표준어가 아님을 지적하였다. ‘물푸레나무’에 대해서는 기원형을 ‘*믈프레나모’로 잡고 이를 나무 이름 ‘*믈프레’에 ‘나모[木]’가 잉여적으로 결합된 어형으로 보았다. 그리고 ‘*믈프레’는 ‘믈[水]’과 ‘프레(프르-+-에)’로 분석하여 ‘물을 푸르게 하는 것’ 정도로 해석하였다. ‘*믈프레나모’는 ‘무푸레나무’로 변하여 20세기의 얼마간까지 쓰였으나 ‘ㄹ’을 회복한 ‘물푸레나무’를 표준어로 삼으면서 대표성을 잃었음을 밝혔다.


The purpose of this paper is trying to review some etymologies of 4 tree names and find out the convincing their original forms by the morphological and semantic analysis of them. The tree names, which are studied here, are ‘개암나무’(Asian hazel), ‘곰솔’(Black pine), ‘구기자나무’(Chinese matrimony vine), ‘물푸레나무’(Asian ash). For the word ‘개암나무’, this paper disproves the existing explanation that ‘개암’(a hazelnut) came from the word ‘*개ᄫᅡᆷ’, the combination of ‘개-’, a prefix and ‘밤[栗]’(a chestnut), a noun. It is assumed that the word came from ‘*개ᄀᆞᆷ’, an original form, and then has become the form of ‘*개ᄋᆞᆷ’. For the word ‘곰솔’, this paper disproves the existing explanation and considers the ‘곰’ is not from ‘熊’(a bear) nor ‘大’(big enough) but from the changed word form of ‘검-[黑]’(a black color), an adjective stem. Therefore, it is assumed that its original form is ‘검솔’ and the word has changed into ‘곰솔’ and the name has been made since the bark of the tree is black color. For the word ‘구기자나무’, it is assumed that ‘枸杞子’, a fruit name combines with ‘나무’(tree), a word. Therefore the word refers to ‘구기자가 달리는 나무’, a tree with the fruit of Chinese matrimony vine. The paper found that before the appearance of the word ‘구기자나무’, the words ‘구긔(枸杞)’ and ‘구긔나모’ were used for referring to the tree. And it has been found that the fruit name ‘구긔ᄌᆞ’ referred to the tree and they remain as ‘구기’, ‘구기나무’, and ‘구기자’ in modern Korean dictionary. But the ‘구기나무’ is not the current standard language. For the word ‘물푸레나무’, it shows up in the early 17th century literature as a form ‘무푸레나모’. It is might be assumed that the word exists as a reconstructed form, ‘*믈프레나모’ in the earlier part of the 15th century, considering a Chinese form, ‘水靑木’, written by a borrowed writing system at that time. It could be assumed that ‘*믈프레나모’ is a word form a tree name, ‘*믈프레’ combined with a redundant word ‘나모’. In addition, ‘*믈프레’ is composed of ‘믈[水, water]’ and ‘프레’, of which ‘프레’ is a root form ‘프르-[靑, blue]’ combined by a suffix, ‘-에’. Consequently, a reconstructed form ‘*믈프레’ is interpreted ‘the thing that makes water blue’, and becoming a tree name in itself. The above naming is reflected by the fact that breaking its branch and putting it in the water, makes the water taking on the blue color drawing from the branch. The form, ‘*믈프레’ had been used until the earlier part of the 20th century through a series of changes, ‘*므프레>무프레>무푸레’, but now ‘물푸레’ is a normative form with a recovered coda ‘ㄹ’. Also a form, ‘*믈프레나모’ had been used during a short time after te 20th century through a series of changes, ‘*므프레나모>무프레나모>무푸레나무’, but it gave its status of a normative form to ‘물푸레나무’ as soon as ‘물푸레’ became a normative form instead of ‘무푸레’.