From: Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
Message: 5821
Date: 2001-01-28
> There are some problems here: the "burn" root is really *dHegWH- (cf. Greek tephra 'ashes' < *dHegWH-ro-), and *dHogWHos (with its o-grade) should have given PGmc *dagwaz rather than *dagaz;I don't know what *dhoghwos should have given in Germanic. PIE */ghw/
>secondly, the semantic connection between "day" and "burn, heat" (also "ashes, tar") is a bit strained.But not impossible. Basque <erre> "to burn" gives dial. <erre-aro>
> "year" is trivial. e.g. Slav. <le^to>). (The Basque word for "day"<egun>, <egur-> is connected to the word for "sun" <egu-zki>,
>Many linguists prefer to link Germanic *dagas to Old Indic ahar (Gen. ahnas) 'day' < h2ag^H-r, *h2ag^H(e)n-. The initial *d in Germanic has been explained as "stolen" from a preceding demonstrative pronoun (*tod h2ag^Hr 'that day' > *..d-h2ag^Hr > *dHagHr > Germanic *dag-).Another theory (the one mentioned by Pokorny) is that it acquired d-
>I wonder, however, if a connection with *dHwes- 'breathe; breath; ghost, spirit' could not be defended. If so, theos would be derived from *dHwes-o-s and related to English deer and Germman Tier < *dHeus-o-m 'breathing, i.e. living thing; animal' and dizzy *dHus-ik-ó- 'breathing hard'. But it's a private idea on which I don't insist.Yes, *dhwh1sós could have given Greek <theos> and also Arm. <dik`>.
>>'Deus', old Latin 'deivos', comes from PIE '*deiuos', which is said to be an ablaut of the verb '*deieu(o)-', "shine".The verbal root "to shine" seems to be *dey-. With a *w-extension
>It is a part of the names Iuppiter and Diana, and in Greek it appears, not as 'theós', but as Zeus. But just to make matters a little more complicated, there were Greek dialects where Zeus was called Deus (boiotian and "lak." = lakedaimonian?). And we've got the 'dios-kouroi', the twin brothers Castor and Pollux.Dios (*diw-ós) is the genitive of Zeus (*dyé:w-s).