Stralsund is a town originally founded by the Slavic Rani. It makes its first historical appearance in 1234 as Stralowe in a document issued by Vislav I, the duke of Rugia (one of those Slavic chieftains who gave in and got themselves new jobs as imperial dukes) in Charenz/Charenza.

Stralowe was clearly named after the Slavic word for arrow (*strěla). It supposedly comes from a proto-Slavic word *strěla.

Predictably, there are also those who believe that it was then borrowed into Slavic. The people who believe that are, of course, unbothered by the fact that the Slavic version appears in all Slavic languages. They are also unbothered by the fact that the Germanic languages also have:

arrow, Pheil/pil, quarrel, bolt, and others.

Were the situation reversed (many different names in Slavic but one of those also found in Germanic), most academics would argue that the Slavic word also found in Germanic would necessarily be of Germanic origin (i.e., import into Slavic). And yet, here some still argued that the Slavic came from Germanic.

This is the same reasoning as the one that:

allows for –mir to be a Slavic suffix but also lays a potential Germanic – depending on the context – claim to some appearances of it,

but reserves –mar and -mer exclusively for the Germanic sphere.

You can see where this is going, of course. Since the Germanics were the warrior group, it, of course, makes sense that they would have “invented”their own word for “arrow”. You can also use this to prove that Slavs did not know arrows until they learned of their existence from Germanics. Perhaps, in your mind’s eye, you can even see a cohort of Slavic peasants servicing a Germanic lord’s bow by quickly grinding out arrows for his upcoming campaign against the Romans, Persians or whatever else his testosterone driven brain set its sights upon. You might even try to prove that the very concept of “rubbing” became known to Slavs by way of testosterone-infused Germanics… 🙂