I suppose you realise that this tridic
scheme is somewhat artificial and thet with the exception of the 'druid' word
the rest of those "Gaulish" terms are actually Latin.
The Celtic word <druid> is
etymologised as *dru-wid-, where the second part is the PIE root *weid- 'see,
know' (see Old Indo-Aryan su-vid- 'knowing well'), and the first part is an
element originally meaning 'strong, solid' that came to function as an intensive
prefix. You can interpret *dru-wid- as 'he who knows/sees a lot'.
<eques> (equit-) and <mi:les>
(mi:lit-) are the Latin military terms for 'cavalryman' and 'infantryman'. The
equites ('knights') were of course a social order as well, but the military
meaning is more basic than the political one, and the word is of course derived
from <equus> 'horse'. I don't know where the <mi:l-> root of
<mi:lit-> comes from. There is no obvious Latin or IE base (any guesses,
List?), and it's hard to tell if the word comes from Etruscan, as sometimes
claimed.
The quirites were Roman 'civilians', i.e.
the citizens of Rome in their civil capacity. Tradition explains the term as
'inhabitants of Cures' (a Sabine town), a body of whom, under their king Titus
Tatius, settled in early Rome (remember the rape story?). <curis,
quiris> is also a word for 'spear' (thought to be of Sabine origin), so it's
likely that the original meaning of <quirit-> is 'spearman'.
Last time I checked, the jury was still out
on whether Old Indo-Aryan <brahman-> and Latin <flamen> were related
or just similar-looking. If cognate, they would have to be reconstructed as
something like *bHlag^H-men- (thus in Pokorny's dictionary), the root *bHlag^H-
being otherwise unknown and so conveniently obscure that you may attribute any
meaning to it.
<plebs, ple:be:s> 'the common people'
comes from PIE *pleh1-dHw- 'plenty, multitude', cf. Gk. ple:tHo: 'be full',
ple:tho:re: 'fullness, satiety', from a very common root meaning 'fill' (cf.
English full < *plh1-no-).
Piotr
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, August 31, 2002 6:30 PM
Subject: [tied] Seeking Information Please
Greetings all,
I have just recently joind this list,
and I must say, after reading through
my first batch of thirty-somthing
emails, I feel slightly reluctant to pose
my question ... it seems laughable
compared to some of the conversations
going on here.
But, since this
list is dedicated to IE history, linguistics and culture,
damnd be my pride,
I need sourcecs ;-)
What I am looking for are some other comparisons of
IE linguisticly related
peoples for the
following:
Rome
----------------
Flamines (priests)
Milites
(warriors)
Quirites
(herders/cultivators)
Gaul
---------------
Druids
(priests)
Equites (warriors)
Plebes
(herders/cultivators)