--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Joao S. Lopes" <josimo70@...> wrote:
> > Taimâta, name of an evil black serpent whose poison is said to be
> > destroyed by the uttering of this Vedic snake-charm; cp. Old
> > Babylonian Tiâmat 'name of the primeval water-dragon of
> > Babylonian mythology'. Taimâta is derived by some scholars from
> > Skt. timi 'big fish' via an unattested form *timâta, but this is
> > speculative.
>
>
> timi akin to Semitic tammim "big fish, sea monster"?
The reliable cognates of Hebrew tannîn (not "tammim"!) 'sea-dragon, (mythical) snake' are restricted to Northwest Semitic:
http://tinyurl.com/39jbkg6
Both the geographical distance and the lexical distance of Skt. timi from this Semitic word (whose reconstructed proto-form is *tVnnVn- according to A. Militarev's Semitic etymological database) makes this comparison rather unlikely.
Skt. timi 'a kind of whale, fabulous fish of enormous size', is first attested in the Mahâbhârata (viz., it is a post-Vedic term). Later on it was also glossed as 'sea'. The etymology is unknown, or at least "not clear" (thus Mayrhofer). A connection had been earlier proposed with the verbal root tim- 'to become wet', which would make of this balaenoptera-like creature "one whose whole body is wet (with oil)?", but this seems rather weak to me.
The connection I have mentioned, of timi with the Vedic mythological serpent Taimâta (vr.ddhi form of a proper noun *Timâta, in turn derived from timi 'whale'?), is equally problematic.
We are left with this apparent similarity of Sanskrit Taimâta to Old Babylonian Tiâmat. Look-alikes?
Best,
Francesco