Some questions for you who might know

[David Kiltz]

On 12.05.2006, at 09:01, Fredrik wrote:

> So what you're saying is that the only attested meaning is 'money'.
> And only by comparison with other languages we can suppose the
> meaning also could be brass, bronze and copper.
> Is the meaning metal not an option?

Given the distribution of the IE word  _*ayos_ or _*Hayos_ the  
original meaning can hardly be anything other than 'copper'. The  
meanings 'bronze' and (later) 'brass' flow naturally from the first,  
as bronze is an alloy made of copper and tin (with some bits of  
arsenic). Brass, on the other hand, is made from copper with zinc.  
Unprocessed bronze is also found in nature, as 'arsenic bronze' but  
its occurance is very rare. Copper is found 'native', that is in a  
rather pure, readily workable state or as ore. As ore, it must be  
cleaned before further use.

It seems, then, that the word for the unworked, raw metal was in  
extension also used for various alloys. As iron is found almost  
exclusively as ore, it seems natural that the word could be used as  
refering to iron ore as well and (in Indo-Iranian) to processed iron.  
Indeed, in Old Germanic the  meaning 'ore' is prominent. OHG _êr_  
(occurring once in Otfrid) doesn't mean 'brass' but 'ore'. The  
primary meaning in MHG is also 'ore'. OE _âr_ and _â/ær(a)_ can,  
AFAIK have the same meaning, the latter (with -a) being the precursor  
of NE _ore_. The same is true for OIc, _eir_.

If we're looking for a parallel to Goth. _aiz_ as (small) money, we  
need not look further than Latin. In Latin _aes, aeris_ means 'ore,  
copper, bronze'. But it's also used as 'money', more specifically a  
coin 'ass' that was worth a quarter to a tenth of a (silver)  
sestertius. Given the closeness of the Goths to Roman culture (as  
evidenced in quite a few loanwords and also the fact, that Greek  
names etc. normally appear in their Latin form) it may not be totally  
implausible to assume for the Goths to have adopted Roman usage.

So, given the evidence of other Germanic languages, Goth. _aiz_ may  
have meant _ore, copper, bronze_. This deriving from an IE  
designation for the first metal known (with later extensions). The  
meaning 'money, copper coin' parallels Latin.

David Kiltz

Addendum: I just read Günther's post. _Aiza-smitha_ indeed quite  
clearly points to some 'metal' meaning.

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