‘Circa’, of course, is the source of the term ‘circle’. In Setswana, ‘circa’ and the Setswana term le-seka strictly refers to a circular band, a bracelet, worn mainly around wrists or ankles. But ‘circa’ itself is based on se-raka, which means ‘circular’, hence the Hebrew the term rakia is associated with a bracelet or large ring. But raka is literally ‘that which meets itself]’ as a circle definitely is not really complete until the two curved lines meet (rakana). In Setswana, le-rako is an enclosure and it typically encircles so as to contain something and mo-raka is where the animals ‘come together’ after grazing out in the open.
In fact, apart from being a lerako, the enclosure that contains animals is called a ‘kraal’ (Afrikaans) or a ‘corral’ (English). Its basic meaning, I discern, comes not from ‘wagon’ (’i.e. currus in Latin; that which speeds [along]; and specifically the enclosure for wagons: currale), but rather from the ancient term kur (curved), as in a circular enclosure that traditionally enclosed animals. We looked at the term last week but let us add a few derivations we did not cover. For example, kur-alla in Setswana is ‘protrude [by bending outward]’, and kuru (khudu: a tortoise) gets its name from its ‘curved’ (‘heaped/protruding’) shell. ‘Correct’ is made up of kur + rect, meaning ‘straighten out [a] curve’; i.e. straighten a ‘bending away’ from the beaten path. Let us now revisit the term kur in the specific light of how it applied in the names of ancient Mesopotamian and European gods (who I confirmed to be the same gods, anyway).
