Re: Vandals

> It is obvious to Snorri and everyone else who used their heads at

his

> time that the Celtic etc district and place names in England are not
> from the language family he saw in the corresponding place names in
> Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany and partly England. Similarly, the
> fact that some Germani in Tacitus' time saw the names of the Marsi,
> Gambrivii, Suevi, Vandilii as genuine old names does not mean that
> they are genuine old Germanic names, in fact they would probably not
> have seen them as such since they don't have a Germanic etymology.

Gambrivii - likely related to Old High German gambar "vigorous".

Suevi is supposed to be a derivative of the Germanic root *swe-
denoting kinship, this is related to OHG swio, geswio "brother in
law" (sister's husband). O. Szemeryeni suggested that Suebi
represents a Germanic development of PIE *swe-bhu:- "growth,
offspring, belonging to the joint family clan" ("Studies in the
Kinship Terminology of the Indo European Languagess"; 1977; p. 46).

Vandilii seems like it is derived from Gmnc *wandiloz "wanderer".

Marsi could be related to Gothic marzjan "to upset/bother" (from PIE
*mer-s- to anger, bother".

- Chris Gwinn