Arabic-L:LING:Antilebanon etymology responses

[Dilworth B. Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Mon 07 May 2001
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1) Subject: Antilebanon etymology response
2) Subject: Antilebanon etymology response
3) Subject: Antilebanon thanks

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1)
Date: 07 May 2001
From: Ernest McCarus <enm at umich.edu>
Subject: Antilebanon etymology response

The Lebanon Mountains run north and south along the Mediterranean
shore of Lebanon; beyond the Baqaa' Plain is another range, between
Lebanon and Syria, called the Anti-Lebanon Mountains, the "mountains
opposite the Lebanon mts."  "Anti-" is the Latin prefix meaning
"against", "opposite of".

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2)
Date: 07 May 2001
From: Jim Rader <jrader at Merriam-Webster.com>
Subject: Antilebanon etymology response

"Antilebanon" is ultimately from Hellenistic Greek <<Antilibanon>.
The <<anti-> part is just the Greek prefix <<anti->, “against,
opposite,” (whence English <<anti-> as in "anti-abortion," "anti-
Semitic", etc., etc.), which in names of mountain ranges denotes a
range opposite and more or less parallel to another range.  Hence
<<Antilibanon>, is a range running opposite and parallel to
<<Libanon> or <<Libanos>.  I think the modern Arabic names for
these two ranges are something like Jabal al-Lubnaan (Libanon)
and Jabal al-Sharqii (Antilibanon), no?  The Romans borrowed the
names for these ranges from Greek as <<Libanus mons> and
<<Antilibanus mons>, from which they've found their way into
modern European languages.  The same prefix turns up in "Anti-
Atlas", the range situated opposite the Atlas mountains in the
Maghrib.  As for applications of the names in Lebanon other than to
the mountain ranges, I couldn't tell you.  Nor do I know anything off
the top of my head about the origin of Greek <<Libanon/s>,
presumably borrowed form Semitic.

Jim Rader

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3)
Date: 07 May 2001
From: Dil Parkinson <dil at byu.edu>
Subject: Antilebanon etymology thanks

Thanks!  I suppose I should have known that since it seems obvious
now that you explain it, but I didn't.
Dil

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End of Arabic-L: 07 May 2001