--- In cybalist@..., alexmoeller@... wrote:

> In fact I am intrigued if the capilati, pilati and comati are
> too , to be found in the latin texts before the dacian wars.
> It is a bit strange to find names like tarabostes where
> therewith is described a dacian word for upper-class, but ,
> when talking about
> under-class of the dacians to be used the latin word.Normaly
> you use the boths foreign words and explain what they mean,
> like in tarabostes. .So, even if it should seem obviously that
> comati , capilati and pileati are latin words, did they appear
> in latin texts before these dacian wars?

<coma> = Greek <kome:> 'hair of the head', attested already in Homer,
and <coma:tus> is its regular Latin derivative. Latin <capillum ~
capillus> 'hair of the head' (hence <capilla:tus>, used also of Roman
aristocrats) occurs in Plautus almost three centuries before the
Dacian wars; so does <pilleus> 'felt hat' (a popular type of hedgear
also in Rome, hence <pillea:tus>). <capillus> derives from Latin
<caput, capit-> 'head' (perhaps slightly hybridised with <pil(l)->;
<pilleus> < *pil-s-ejo-s is related to Latin <pilus> 'hair' and Greek
<pi:los> 'felt, (felt) cap'.

Piotr

Piotr