Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/rarogъ

Usually believed to be from *rarъ (“noise”) or *rarati (“to make noise”) + *-ogъ. If not, from *rajati (“to make noise”) + *-ogъ. The name refers to the sounds the bird makes. Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *rā-, compare Lithuanian rojóti (“to crow”), Proto-Germanic *rairāną (“to roar”).

Since of limited geography of the word (near-Carpathian), it might be post-Proto-Slavic borrowing from Old Hungarian, compare Hungarian rá- (“on, onto”), ráró (“saker”), rárohan (“to attack from air”).^[1]

Since some descendants (Polish, Czech, Slovak, and Ukrainian (from Polish)), or their derivatives, mean “devil”, “demon”, “gnome” etc., some scholars tried to connect the word with *Sъvarogъ (“Svarog (Slavic god of fire)”), with *rarogъ being Svarog's bird demonized durning Christianization. However, both words have different etymologies, and the oldest attestations of these words (Old Czech, Old Polish, Old Ruthenian) mean only “saker”.

*rarogъ m^[2]

1. saker (any bird of the species Falco cherrug)

• South Slavic:
  • Serbo-Croatian:

    Cyrillic script: раров (“species of eagle”) (dialectal)

    Latin script: rarov (“species of eagle”) (dialectal)

  • >? Serbo-Croatian: ràrog (“lobster”) (Croatia)
    • Chakavian Serbo-Croatian: rȁrog, rarȍg (“lobster”)
      • → Slovene: rárog (“lobster”)
• West Slavic:
  • Old Czech: raroh
    • Czech: raroh
  • Kashubian: raróg
  • Old Polish: raróg
    • Polish: raróg; reróg (dialectal)
      • → Old Lithuanian: raragas
    • →? Old Ruthenian: рарогъ (raroh)
      • Belarusian: рарог (raróh)
      • Ukrainian: ра́ріг (rárih), ра́рог (rároh), рарія f (rarija) (dialectal)
        • → Polish: rarîg
  • Old Slovak: rároh, ⇒ rároha f
    • Slovak: rároh
    • ⇒ Slovak: rárašek, járog, rárožica
  • Sorbian:
    • >? Upper Sorbian: rаrоh

• Boryś, Wiesław (2005) “raróg”, in Słownik etymologiczny języka polskiego (in Polish), Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, →ISBN, page 510
• Melnychuk, O. S., editor (2006), “ра́ріг”, in Етимологічний словник української мови [Etymological Dictionary of the Ukrainian Language] (in Ukrainian), volume 5 (Р – Т), Kyiv: Naukova Dumka, →ISBN, page 28
• Tsykhun, G. A., editor (2006), “рарог”, in Этымалагічны слоўнік беларускай мовы [Etymological Dictionary of the Belarusian Language] (in Belarusian), volumes 11 (раб – сая́н), Minsk: Belaruskaia navuka, →ISBN, page 106
• Václav Machek (1968) “raroh”, in Etymologický slovník jazyka českého [Etymological Dictionary of the Czech Language], 2nd edition, Prague: Academia, page 508
• Rejzek, Jiří (2001) “raroh”, in Český etymologický slovník [Czech Etymological Dictionary] (in Czech), 1st edition, Voznice: LEDA, →ISBN, page 554
• Smoczyński, Wojciech (2007) “rojóti”, in Słownik etymologiczny języka litewskiego‎^[1] (in Polish), Vilnius: Uniwersytet Wileński, page 1036
• Brückner, Aleksander (1927) “raróg”, in Słownik etymologiczny języka polskiego [Etymological Dictionary of the Polish Language] (in Polish), Warsaw: Wiedza Powszechna, page 454
• Snoj, Marko (2016) “rȃrog”, in Slovenski etimološki slovar [Slovenian Etymology Dictionary] (in Slovene), 3rd edition, https://fran.si