Re: Lat. niger once again

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski <gpiotr@...> wrote:

>
> In view of the fact that Lat. niger means practically the same as Gk.
> eremnos 'murky, black, dark', I'd like to propose an etymology:
>
> *h1regW-no-s > pre-Lat. *regnos > *rignos > *nigros (metathesis) > niger
>
> Advantages:
>
> (1) It explains the /i/, which is not accounted for by the

assumption of

> *negW-ro- (*e > Lat. i before <gn> [Nn], as in <dignus, lignum> but
> _not_ before /gr/).
>
> (2) <niger> has an external cognate with the same meaning.
>
> Piotr

**********
Liddell and Scott has : "eremn-os , ê, on, (Ereb-nos, cf. Erebos)
murky, black, dark".
I assume "Ereb-nos" is "*Erebnos" just to explain "Erebos". Must we
abandon this, or is it still possible under the Piotr hypothesis?
Dan