LO 'HORSE' IN COMPOUND PLANT NAMES [I.]

Except for some fodder-plants, most compound plant names in 'lo-' have nothing to do with 'Equus caballus'; the anterior constituent 'lo-' normally refers to size. Either to the size of the whole plant, or to that of its fruit, stone, or blossom. The attribute 'lo' modifies names of plant species that are larger than others of their kind. Just like with some animal names beginning in 'lo,' where the referent is larger than the breed referred to by the posterior constituent on its own. That is, 'lo' means 'large' in such names. Examples include lotetu 'mole-cricket' (cf. tetu 'louse'), lodarazs 'hornet' (cf. darazs 'wasp'), and a few others. Large-bodied horses were taken as a measure. (Today, the same idea is more often expressed by 'mammoth' or 'elephant'.) Among botanic terms, compounds in 'lo-' occur even more frequently. Another function of the anterior constituent at hand is discrimination: it expresses that the plant or part of plant concerned is not fit for human consumption.