[tied] Re: Saxon wanum "bright"

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Marco Moretti"
<marcomoretti69@...> wrote:

> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski
> <piotr.gasiorowski@...> wrote:
> > 15-01-04 18:40, Brian M. Scott wrote:
> >
> > > s.v. <wânam>. (Warning: This is quite a large file.) There
> > > are also entries for <wânami> str. fem. 'Glanz' ('shine')
> > > and an adverb <wânamo> 'glänzend' ('shiningly').
> >
> > But this word comes from *we:numa-, related to Middle English

ween

> > 'beautiful' < *we:njo- and perhaps to the 'hope, imagine' word-
> family
> > (Goth. we:njan, OE we:nan, OS wânjan, ON væ:na, ...). It

can
hardly

> be
> > related to the name of the Vanir (unless both are somehow

connected

> with
> > *wenh1-, but that, while supported by some dictionaries,

requires a

> lot
> > of semantic prestidigitation).
> >
> > Piotr
>
> I was simply wrong. The source on which the quote was based was
> apparently very rough, and without any indication of vowel length.
> Being /wa:num/ with a long vowel, the only possible ancestor
> is /*we:num-/, that is in any case pre-IE. Interesting is the
> suffix /-um-/.
> So I can now only affirm that the nearest possible cognate of

Vanir

> is Greek /(w)anakt/. The central meaning is not "bright".
>
> Marco.

***********
As far a I know, the only I.-E. etymology that has been
suggested for Gk. (w)anax is the same *wnh1- that Piotr mentioned.
If so, the Vanir have lots of cognates. However, more likely
(w)anax isn't I.E. at all, but a pre-Greek title retained by the
Myceneans, in which case a connection to the Vanir seems extremely
unlikely.
Dan