From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 18028
Date: 2003-01-24
----- Original Message -----
From: "alex_lycos" <altamix@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, January 24, 2003 6:46 AM
Subject: Re: [tied] Re: yellow
> Just a more question; could it be they are derivatives of the colour white? alb, gãlb, spelb= white, yellow, pale( spelb=just about the colour of the face when someone is sick and his face has a very pale colour).For "white" there is clear no Latin word even if there is "albus" in latin (see Alboca, Albocensii& co for getic space)
Why isn't <albus> a "clear" term for 'white', in your opinion? It's a word with an IE etymology and a host of Latin derivatives, and I can't see what could prevent us from regarding it as a basic colour term in Latin (as opposed to such specialised adjectives as <candidus> 'shining-white' or poetic <ca:nus> 'greyish-white, hoary'). There was no shortage of words describing colours in Latin.
As for deriving <galbinus> etc. from <albus> -- well, you can't do that, but perhaps an earlier form (borrowed from Gaulish? cf. <gilvus>) was contaminated by <albus>.
Piotr
Piotr