Re: Pagan - etymology?
| From: | Lars Henrik Mathiesen <thorinn@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Friday, July 14, 2000, 10:51 |
|---|
> Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2000 14:08:58 -0500
> From: "Thomas R. Wier" <artabanos@...>
> Lars Henrik Mathiesen wrote:
> > Could pagus be a thematic variant of pax?
Yes, I was a bit too brief --- I meant that pagus is formed on that
root using a thematic vowel, and pax without one.
> > Also cf. Greek pagos as in Areopagos.
> But that is págos, 'rock, crag, rocky hill', with rising tone, not
> pâgos, with rising-falling tone.
Págos does have the same root. But yes, the meaning is a bit far from
the Latin --- whence pâgos seems to be a loan.
> That was actually a typo in my last email -- the title is actually 'meddix'.
> So, presumably there is no relation: it means 'he who cares for, attends to,
> a curator, the title of a magistrate among the Oscans'.
> > Touto --- is that 3f touto, toutonis? Perseus (Lewis & Short) does not
> > list it. But it almost has to be related to Germanic *teuto- as in
> > Dutch.
> That seems probable, given the meaning. But I don't know enough about
> historical phonological developments in Oscan and Old Latin to say for sure.
Ah, your original message didn't say these were Oscan words. No wonder
L&S don't show touto; but they do mention the phrase meddix tuticus.
IIRC, Latin -u- does in some cases correspond to Germanic *-eu-. For
instance L lux ~ ON ljós/G licht (ON shows the diphthong, G the -k-).
Lars Mathiesen (U of Copenhagen CS Dep) <thorinn@...> (Humour NOT marked)