Chronology of the breakup of Common Romance [long]

[X99Lynx at aol.com]

In a message dated 8/19/99 11:58:57 PM, maxdashu at LanMinds.Com wrote:

<<How do you figure? Madr figures in Norse compounds as "man," for example
"spa/madr," seer, prophet? And bla as "blue," as in Blakulla.>>

Okay, let me take it back and try again.

In 'bla'madr', we may not only see the expected "madhr" > man, or a possible
connection to 'madness' mentioned as a gloss - but also we may see <madhra> -
a form of a word that has referred to dyes and cloths and color in general
for at least 1000 years.

There is of course no obvious connection with "madhr" or "madness".  But it
may be appropriate in this instance to take a sideward glance at madhr(a),
because of 'bla'madr's connection with color.  This might be especially true
because "madhra" itself refers to a brown-red dye that can approximate darker
skin colors, and was sometimes used in neighboring languages to refer to
dying or dyed objects in general.  So that "-madr" here might be an affix or
compound referring to being colored or dyed or covered with a color.

This is no guarantee of course that "bla'madhr" does not in fact refer to
that everyday, familiar, common household object and more likely meaning> a
blue man.

Regards,
Steve Long