minimal pairs

Eduard Selleslagh edsel at glo.be
Fri Dec 22 12:50:13 UTC 2000


----- Original Message -----
From: "Anton Sherwood" <bronto at pobox.com>
Sent: Wednesday, December 20, 2000 5:34 AM

> Eduard Selleslagh wrote:

>> Note that 'Anthony', 'author' etc. are a class apart: the English
>> spelling does not correspond to Latin spelling, which has 't':
>> Antonius, auctor...

> <Anthony> was misderived from Greek <anthos> `flower'.

[Ed]

I have never heard that one. It looks very implausible to me, since English
writers were undoubtedly more familiar with Latin than with ancient or any
other kind of Greek, and in Latin texts, classic and later, the name Antonius
is very common. I know of no other West European language that uses the
th-spelling. The same is true for 'author', which is certainly not misderived
from Greek.

> A large fraction of Roman gentile names come from Etruscan, so it's
> unlikely that we latter-day Antonii will ever find our root(s).
> Anton Sherwood  --  br0nt0 at p0b0x.com  --  http://ogre.nu/

[Ed]

It is true that many a nomen gentile is - or pretended to be - of Etruscan
origin (Maecenas, Maro, most names ending in -(n)na or -(m)nus, maybe even
Caesar ['from Caere' - now Cerveteri - ??]...). On the other hand, the
Etruscans often Etruscicized (actually: obliterated) Greek, Latin and oriental
names or designations (e.g. Macstarna < Magister-na, Clu(tu)msta <
Klytaimnestra). And the (in origin Anatolian) Etruscans are linguistically
second cousins of the Italic speaking peoples, so the search for the roots of
the latter day Antonii (etc...) risks becoming cyclical ('cercle vicieux').

I don't know the origin of the name 'Antonius'. Does anybody?

To me it looks like definitely IE, and - just maybe - with Greek roots (ant-,
-o:n, or -o:ne:, referring to someone who stands up against xxx, or bids
against xxx...???) even though it could be Italic as well, but that is just
wild guesswork of mine.

The -ius is of course a usual Latin ending of a nomen gentile (an adjectival
form).

Ed. Selleslagh



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