Etymology of "Alavivus?"

Francisc Czobor fericzobor at YAHOO.COM
Wed Feb 20 13:42:18 UTC 2008


Koebler (in "Anhang 3: Gotische Namen") derives Alavivus from weihan. 
I understand this that the name is composed of ala- "all" + a 
derivation of weihan (I suppose it's weihan, strong verb, "to battle, 
combat, dispute", and not weihan*, weak verb, "hallow, sanctify"). 
The Gothic form could be *Ala-weihs or *Ala-weigs, but I can't 
understand how the second "v" of "Alavivus" appeared.
Alatheus, on the other hand, is explained as Alathius (ala- "all" + 
þius "thrall, servant").

Francisc


--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, Michael Erwin <merwin at ...> wrote:
>
> Can anybody reconstruct the name Latinized as "Alavivus?"
> 
> I was thinking it could be a corruption of the name Latinized as  
> "Alatheus," e.g. if he had added a Gothic signature to a Latin or  
> Greek diplomatic letter, and the þ was hard to read, and/or the  
> readers didn't know any Gothic.
>


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