The Common Indo-European word for 'beaver', *bi»ibher ~ *bi»ebher, preserves an original meaning 'brown' or 'shiny' in some of the dialects which lac… - Tamaz Gamkrelidze

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The Common Indo-European word for 'beaver', *bi»ibher ~ *bi»ebher, preserves an original meaning 'brown' or 'shiny' in some of the dialects which lack it in the meaning 'beaver'. The word is attested in the Rigveda in the sense 'red- brown' (of horses, cows, gods, plants), Ved. babhrú-; in Mitannian Aryan bapru-nnu is a horse color (Mayrhofer 1966:137ff., 1974:§7); the non-reduplicated cognate is a horse color term in Slavic: Pol. brony 'bay', OCzech brony 'white', ORuss. bronyi 'white'. In later Sanskrit the term refers to a specific animal, the ichneumon (Herpestes ichneumon, a long-tailed species of mongoose that kills otters and mice). In Greek the non-reduplicated cognate means 'toad', which is consistent with the meaning of Old Prussian brunse 'roach; small fish', Lith. dial. bruñSé (Toporov 1975-:I.256-57)... In summary, derivatives of *wot'or- 'water' mean 'otter', and reduplicated derivatives of the color term mean 'beaver', only in a sharply limited dialect group which includes the later European dialects (Baltic, Slavic, Germanic, Italic, Celtic) and Avestan. This is apparently an innovation, one having to do with the particular ecological environment inhabited by speakers of these dialects. It is notable that the Indo-Iranian languages are split by this isogloss: Sanskrit shows the more archaic situation, while Avestan displays the innovation.