Re: Pagan - etymology?

> Date:         Fri, 14 Jul 2000 13:25:29 -0500
> From: "Thomas R. Wier" <artabanos@...>
> Lars Henrik Mathiesen wrote:
> > Págos does have the same root. But yes, the meaning is a bit far from
> > the Latin --- whence pâgos seems to be a loan.
>
> Perhaps.   But in which direction?
From Latin --- hence my use of whence. At least that's what I think
Liddell-Scott-Jones mean by

pâgos, `o, = Lat. pagus, district, Plu.Num.16, PGen.54.33 (iv A. D.), etc.

Note the late date.

> > 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.
> Well, 'touto' was a technical term used *in* Latin, even if it did
> not originate in that language.
But too technical for L&S. I thought that was a pretty complete
resource. But there are limits to everything, of course.

> > 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-).
> I was more concerned about the /o/ element of the diphthong. Like I
> said, I don't know whether there is any systematic relationship
> between /ou/ in Oscan and /eu/ in Classical Latin. It could be
> entirely coincidence.
I didn't mean to imply that it was ever -eu- in Latin. *teuto- is the
reconstructed form in Germanic, which I'm _guessing_ could correspond
to tuto- in Latin. I don't know if -ou- can be the correspondence in
Oscan --- I doubt that there's a book in this town that could tell me.

Lars Mathiesen (U of Copenhagen CS Dep) <thorinn@...> (Humour NOT marked)