Re: [tied] Neptune, Poseidon, Danu, etc.

*potis is directly reflected in Greek as <posis> 'husband'. <despote:s> is supposed to contain a secondary stem formation *pota:-, perhaps created on the analogy of numerous Greek masculines in -ta:(-s) > -te:s (<naute:s, poli:te:s>, etc.). Other branches have *poti- also in compounds, e.g. Lithuanian Z^emepatis 'earth-lord', Old Prussian waispatti- 'village-chief'.

As far as I remember, my tentative guess in the "Poseidon Thread" was that the <posei-> ~ <potei-> part was an old vocative (PIE N.sg. *potis, Gen.sg. *poteis, Voc.sg. *potei), like <iu-> (from Voc.sg. *djeu) in Latin Iuppiter.

On the etymology of Neptu:nus I'm simply agnostic. There is no change of -a:n- into -u:n- in Latin.

Piotr

----- Original Message -----
From: Eris

To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Tuesday, July 03, 2001 6:25 PM

Subject: Re: [tied] Neptune, Poseidon, Danu, etc.

At 08:54 7/3/01 +0200, you wrote:

> Is #2 [*potis 'lord, master'] also IE [or is it Greek]?

IE, no doubt about that. It has such cognates as Old Indian pati- and Lithuanian patis. The feminine counterpart was *potnih2- 'lady'.

Okay... I do know that there was an [Old?] Greek word despotes ("lord of the house", right?). I assume potes is singular nominative and des is genetive of dem (but I thought it was dom in Greek, not IE dem... ah well). Anyhow, would potes itself therefore have been the Greek form of potis? Would that "kinda-sorta" explain where the -ei- comes from in PosEIdon? Still unclear on that.

Also, concerning the Latin side of things, looking at the Etruscan name for the same, Nethanus, the a:n is there! :) But I don't understand why it would be u:n in Latin, unless earlier in Latin it was actually Neptanus and the Etruscans borrowed it before it changed (why?) to Neptunus. Does that sound plausible?
(Sorry for the repeated question, but I am very curious about that change.)