During the 2nd chapter of Baptism Of Fire, Geralt and Dandelion come across a group of traders trying to sell Cahir to the Nilfgaardian army, who are introduced as "havekars", basically war profiteers selling weapons to the Scoia'tael.
But while the term "havekar" is explained to be, within the story, a sloppy transliteration of a (supposedly fictional) elven word, the text seems to suggest that it has, or at least points to, a real meaning in human language, too:
Money ruled the world, and demand created supply. The Scoia'tael roaming the woods piled up huge loot, for which they had no use, though. But they lacked in gear and weapons. This way a flying trade arose in the woods. And a kind of humans who catered to that trade. On the forest paths, glades and aisles quietly and secretly the carts of the speculators appeared, who did business with the squirrels. The elves called them hav'caaren, an untranslatable word, but in which ringed predatory greed. Among the humans the term "havekar" vernacularized, and that reminded of an even more detestable word. For it were detestable people. Cruel and ruthless they didn't shy away from anything, not even murder. A havekar caught by the army couldn't count on mercy. The same as he himself didn't use to be merciful. If he encountered someone who could reveal him to the soldiers, he reached for crossbow or knife without hesitation.
But it's unclear to me what "even more detestable word" Sapkowski is alluding to here (which might extratextually have in turn inspired the elven word). This is made especially difficult since I didn't read the Polish original but its German translation (and thus the above excerpt has actually been translated into English by me from Erik Simon's official German translation). So it might very well be that the allusion got itself lost in translation and refers to a Polish word that doesn't actually fit to "havekar" in German. Alternatively, "havekar" might itself have been translated from Polish in order to make sense in the translation, a sense I'm nevertheless still missing.
So what real word is he hinting at here that the ostensible transliteration "havekar" is supposed to remind us of? Does this only make sense in Polish? Or does it maybe not even make sense in the original and is itself an empty allusion for the sheer sake of worldbuilding through incomplete knowledge?
