From: Abdullah Konushevci
Message: 26584
Date: 2003-10-21
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "alex" wrote:************
>
> > tolgs001 wrote:
> >
> >>> In Portuguese aera:men (aeramin-) gave "arame" (wire).
> >>> In Spanish, alambre (cf. alambrado, also used in Portuguese)
> >>
> >> And in Romanian <arama> "copper" (also known as <cupru>).
>
> The word has already been discussed, it was just to precise
> the Latin suffix it was formed with [not being analyzable in
> Romanian -> ending shifted from /e/ > /&/, regular feminine].
>
> > the another word, "alamã" being considered as uncertian and
> > one get the recomandation to see the word as the Italian "alama"
> > (plate of metal).
>
> The indication is actually: "to be confronted with Italian <lama>
> `metal plate`". In fact, Italian word has several meanings, the one
> to be compared with being archaic or letterary. Italian "lama" it's
> seen by linguists as deriving from French "lame" (`cutting part of
> a knife`, `thin metal plate`) which itself derives from Latin
> "lamina(m)" (`thin sheet of metal`, `blade`).
> Romanian word could be a late loanword or a compound "ad+lamina"
> with slightly irregular reduction of the ending. Latin word meant
> also `golden coin`, `gold` -- through color and metallic shape,
> that could describe also brass.
>
> > Alama is though not metal
>
> You must be kidding. Alama (`brass`) is of course a metal.
>
> > and not a plate but a ligature of cooper and zinc.
>
> Certainly not "ligature", but "alloy" of copper & zinc.
>
> Marius Iacomi