Re: [tied] The Chaideinoi, all honourable men

From: Daniel J. Milton
Message: 20889
Date: 2003-04-09

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski
<piotr.gasiorowski@...> wrote:
>
> > Why doesn't it sound Germanic? Why not *xaid-u-z 'rank, status,
honour, person' (Eng. -hood, Ger. -heit, ON heiðr) with a
derivational ending? The most natural formation from this base would
have been *xaid-i:na-z 'man of high rank'.
>
> I've just checked up the original spelling, which is
actually "Chaideinoi". I'll eat my keyboard, cable and all, if it
isn't *xaidi:na-, analysed as above. The name is reflected as
<heiðnir> in Old Norse, but they were 'honourable men', not
merely 'heathens'.
>
> Piotr
********
I'm missing something in that last comment (maybe from not being
familiar with the Old Norse word). Are you implying a different
etymology for Eng. 'heathen' than the standard "people of the heath"
< I.-E. *kaito- "wald, umbebauter Landstrich" (Pokorny 819)? I do
have a vague memory of a suggestion that the similarity of sound
with the Gk. 'ethnoi' had something to do with the usage of the word
for "pagan".
I've got to get the OED for my PC!
Dan