andera 'woman' Celtic ?

Steven A. Gustafson stevegus at aye.net
Tue Apr 6 13:55:05 UTC 1999


X99Lynx at aol.com wrote:

> Another theory is that Andros, the Greek island was involved earlier.  The
> island is mentioned by Greek writers as having formed a fair number of early
> (pre-300bce) colonies, and was associated with the also Ionian Phokia, which
> is in turn credited with the founding of the Greek colony Massilia
> (Marseilles) about 600bce. Also just about 80 miles north of Massalia was
> located ANDERITUM (sometimes called Gabalum as the chief city of the Celtic
> Gabales), also later a fairly important Roman center.  (The word would have
> moved east and north with other Greek borrowings that occur in early French.)

I'm reasonably certain that in Bede's Latin (or is it Thomas of
Malmesbury?) ANDERIDA is the name of a forest in England, if this sheds
any light on the prevalence or meaning of this allegedly Celtic root.  I
think it's still called the Forest of Andred.

If 'andera' means "woman," though, and we're wondering where it came
from, my first thought would be to look to Germanic.  There's a
widespread Germanic root ander-, annar-, meaning 'other.'  Perhaps the
original idea was something like 'the opposite sex?'

--
Steven A. Gustafson, attorney at law
Fox & Cotner:  PHONE (812) 945 9600   FAX (812) 945 9615
http://www.foxcotner.com

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their team.



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