Re: [tied] Goths and Germans

From: João Simões Lopes Filho
Message: 3525
Date: 2000-09-01

Latin GERMANUS means "true, form the same origin, genuine", from GERMEN "sprout" <*GEN-MN
Latin expression FRATER GERMANUS means "true brother; genuine brother"
from GERMANUS came Portuguese IRMAO (with tilde over A)  and Spanish HERMANO, meaning "brother".
note to English people: IRMA~O pronounce's like "EAR-MOWN".
 
I knew the version that GERMAN came from GAIZ-MANN- "javelin-man".
 
Joao (with tilde too) SL
Rio
----- Original Message -----
From: Kraig Hausmann
To: cybalist@egroups.com
Sent: Friday, September 01, 2000 6:13 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] Goths and Germans

When I was studying classics, I learned that the Roman Senate awarded them the name 'Germani' during the Republic which meant 'brothers.'  Is there anything to this?  If so, the title doesn't seem to have fit for very long.
 
Kraig
The very much amateur
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, September 01, 2000 2:06 PM
Subject: [tied] Goths and Germans


A crazy guess:
 
Germa:n- may be a straightforward Latin translation of Germanic Gut-an- 'Goths'. For a linguistic analysis of the latter term, see
 
 
If the weak-declension stem that serves as name of the Goths is derived from the verb root represented by Gothic giutan 'flow', -gutnian 'pour', it may have meant something like 'springing forth (from the same source), offshoot', hence the Latin calque germa:nus 'of the same race, having the same parents' (cf. germen 'embryo, sprout, offshoot').
 
Opinions?
 
Piotr