Common name | blavor |
Language | Croatian |
Type | Vernacular |
Official trade name | No |
Rank | 3 - (Other common name) |
Country | Croatia |
Locality | Dubrovnik |
Ref. | |
Life stage | juveniles and adults |
Sex | females and males |
Core | non-fish animal |
1st modifier | |
2nd modifier | |
Remarks | Blavor is actually the Croatian and Serbian name for the Ophisaurus apodus (blindworm, a type of legless lizard; the folk believes that blavor is a snake). The fish (Synodus saurus) is really very similar to the lizard. ETYM.: It's probably a relict from some pre-Slavic Balkan language (Illyrian?) which also exists in Albanian (bullar) and Romanian (bǎlaur), maybe *bolaurus or *beluarius, to bola "snake", belua. [Skok, Petar. 1971. Etimlogijski rječnik hrvtaskoga ili srpskoga jezika I. Zagreb] |