Etruscans (was: minimal pairs)

[Miguel Carrasquer Vidal]

On Mon, 12 Feb 2001 07:00:15 -0000, "Douglas G Kilday"
<acnasvers at hotmail.com> wrote:

>If Lemn. <evistho> represents Gk. *eu(h)isto:r, it is probably an epithet
>'well-knowing' = 'wise (man)' (cf. <poluisto:r> 'much-knowing'), not an
>official title. It would be crassly self-serving for magistrates to
>incorporate "good" or "well" into their titles. They are expected to do a
>"good" job anyway, or else suffer judgment themselves.

I was going to say that there was a college of judges in Athens called
<euthu:nos> (the term was also applied to the magistature itself), but
that is from <euthus> "right, straight", and doesn't necessarily
contain <eu->.

<Histo:r> itself may be interpreted as "knower" (it means "expert" in
Attic), but also as "seer" (another Homeric meaning, besides "judge,
referee" is "witness").  "One who sees/discerns well" may not be an
inappropriate title for a judge or "overseer".  From the context on
the stele, it seems clear to me that some kind of function/
magistrature is meant (as I thought even before thinking of Greek
(eu-)histo:r): it occurs as <seronaith evistho> and <evistho
seronaith>, together with a PN in the locative: "judge [vel simile] in
Seruna".  One doesn't expect an epithet in that context.

But there's really nothing to be concluded as long as there's no
confirmation of *eu-histo:r as the name of a magistrature, for
instance in Phocaea or in Chalcidice.

=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv at wxs.nl