Re: [tied] Re: Baltic Slav rebellion

I wonder if names such as *sve~to-pUlkU could not be used as evidence, but of course the meaning 'Sacred Lord' for *sve~to-vitU also makes good sense.

You asked about *-vitU. I'll have to check if anything is known about its etymology but this element is quite frequent in Slavic onomastics: Semovit, Samovit, Jarovit, Vitoslav, Ljudivit, etc. I've met the interpretation 'lord' in the literature, and it's certainly borne out by the combinatorial analysis of personal names like those above (plus, of course, Svantovit and Rugievit).

While we are at it -- what's the etymology of Lithuanian Vy- in Vytautas?

Piotr

----- Original Message -----
From: Sergejus Tarasovas

To: cybalist@egroups.com

Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2001 8:54 AM

Subject: [tied] Re: Baltic Slav rebellion

--- In cybalist@egroups.com, "Piotr Gasiorowski" <gpiotr@......> wrote: > Slavic *sve~t-o- [skipped]. The meaning 'holy' became dominant after the introduction of Christianity; the old central meaning was 'powerful, vigorous'. Rather 'sacred'. Quite a pagan term, also supported by Baltic cognates whose basic meaning is '(pagan) festival', which of course could be related to 'powerful, vigorous', but I'm not aware of any *direct* evidence. Sergei