Baja, Baya, Insects ???

[Rajczy Miklos]

Dear Boze,

In Hungary there is a town of the same name, i.e. Baja some 50 km north to
the Croatian border, and a village in Transdanubia called Baj (the
pronounciation is similar to that You described). Our etimological
dictionary of geographical names tells that the origin of both names is
the name of the owner/leader of the place (this is very common in the
Hungarian language). This name 'Baj' has a meaning in the old Turkish
language: 'rich'. Baja is the hypocoristic form of Baj in the old Turkish
language. I do not know, whether there is some connection between the bug
and the geographical name or not. (N.B. this 'old Turkish' language is not
identical with the osmanli Turkish which occupied the territory in the
Middle Ages, but older)

Cheers, Miklós
____________________________________________________________
Rajczy, Miklos             Botanical Department
<rajczy at bot.nhmus.hu>      Hungarian Natural History Museum
Phone: +36 1-210-1330      Budapest, Pf. 222, H-1476 HUNGARY
Fax:   +36 1-314-1483      Talk: rajczy at segoy.bot.nhmus.hu

On Thu, 19 Oct 2000, Prirodoslovni muzej Split wrote:

> Dear Friends
> I am interested in origin of word of "baja". This word is common in
> Bosnia and in some parts of Croatian local population, and it is how
> some of our people call the insects, mostly coleoptera.  
> We are spelling "baja" like this words: B=Bicycle, A=Answer, J=Yard,
> A=Answer, and we pronounce it like we spell it. [BAJA=BAYA]
> What do you think now? Do you know for some similar word?
> I think that the word must be of ancient oriental or even preroman
> origin and I hope that some Albanian, Turkish, Arabian or even Indian
> (Sanskrt) or Indonesian entomologist can confirm it to me and to explain
> the real meaning of the word if there is some meaning at all. Can you
> describe what does it mean, the roots of this word, please. 
> Dear Friends
> My best wishes 
> 
> Boze Kokan
> Prirodoslovni muzej i zoološki vrt Split
> p.p.376
> 21 000 Split
> Croatia
> Europe
> primust at st.tel.hr
> tel/fax: ++385/21460-989
>