Re[3]: [tied] Latin m>w, w>m

From: Brian M. Scott
Message: 50123
Date: 2007-09-29

At 1:55:18 AM on Saturday, September 29, 2007, Rick
McCallister wrote:

[...]

> NOW, my crackpot idea.

> The name Miriam, Maryam, Mary, Marie, etc. is
> traditionally linked to Hebrew mar yam "bitter sea". This
> does not sound at all like a name you'd want to give your
> daughter.

Keeps the boggarts at bay. But in fact I've never seen it
offered seriously.

> I'm guessing it more likely comes from Egyptian mery
> "beloved" + some suffix or other word. Any ideas?

The idea has been proposed. Emidio Dei Felice, Dizionario
dei nomi italiani, s.n. <Maria>, referring to Hebrew
<Marya:m>:

[I]l nome ... è di origine egizia, è cioè un derivato
dell'egizio _mrj(t)_ 'amato, caro' con il suffisso
diminutivo femminile ebraico _-a:m_.

In a couple other secondary sources I've seen other
suggestions: it's from a Hebrew <ra:ma> 'high, longed for,
desired' with a prefix <ma-> that the writer didn't
identify, or perhaps related to <meri:> 'rebellion'; or
(without any details) it may originally have signified 'den
tjukkfalne', which I take to be 'the stoutish, the
heavyset'. De Felice is unusual in not acknowledging that
the origin is uncertain.

Brian