Re[2]: [tied] decem

At 8:41:15 AM on Sunday, February 9, 2003, Piotr Gasiorowski
wrote:

> Etymologies explaininng "Decebalus" as 'ten swords',
> 'tenfold strength' (quasi Skt. das'a-bala-) or even 'ten
> dicks' (assuming that <-balus> = pHallos) seem to me to be
> a bit on the fanciful side. My personal suspicion is that
> <-balus> = Gaul. -valos 'chief, prince', and that the
> first element is Celtic too: *dek-/*deg- 'good, worthy,
> suitable' < PIE *dek^- 'accept', cf. OIr. dech 'best',
> Lat. decus, decet, dignus, Skt. das'as-, etc.). A 'worthy
> chief', then?

Presumably this would be related to the Gaulish name theme
<Dago->, <Daco-> (e.g., <Dagorix>), which goes with OIr
<dag-> 'good' and I presume Welsh <da>? Whence the /a/ in
these?

Brian M. Scott