Re: NATLANG: Irish greeting

Stephen Mulraney wrote:
> Costentin Cornomorus wrote:
>
>>> Spot on John! O means from
>>>
>>> -Duke
>>
>>
>>
>> The same o as in O Connell?
>>
>
> It's always seemed like they might be the same thing to me.
> I've seen 'Ó' in surnames (Or "O'" in anglicised forms) described
> as "ancestor of", but it does look like a thinly-disguised preposition.
>
> OTOH, there is a bit of a twist: 'Ó' has a genitive form 'Ui', so that
> you'd say "O'Connell" as "Ó Connall" (have I spelt that right? I'm not
> sure - having a head cold always makes me rather dyslexic (!)), and
> "O'Connell's dog" as "madra Ui Chonnaill". So perhaps they have different
> sources.

OK, I've just consulted Thurneysen (God love it), and they're different.
The 'Ó' in surnames, meaning "grandson of" seems to be the same as Latin
'avus', meaning 'grandfather' or 'ancestor'. I guess you could easily say
the Irish 'Ó' means "whose grandfather/ancestor is" rather than "grandson
of".

The 'ó' meaning 'from' is cognate to the prefix in Latin 'auferre' 'to carry
away' (and apparantly Old Prussian 'au-mu:snan', 'washing off'). Surely it has
some more obvious cognate though. What am I missing?

s.


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