Re: [tied] Re: I, Hercules [was: A "Germanic" query]

----- Original Message -----

From: tgpedersen

To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Friday, February 22, 2002 4:02 PM

Subject: [tied] Re: I, Hercules [was: A "Germanic" query]

> As to the (H)erminones, I *could* in fact come up with an alternative, if our excellent playing referee hadn't forbidden any further exploration along that line.

 

"Erminones" is the Latinised plural or *ermVn-o:n-, a weak-stem derivative of the same morpheme that appears as <erman->, <irmin->, <irman->, <jOrmun->, <eormen-> in proper names as well as numerous compounds all across Germania. It had been largely delexicalised by historical times, serving as a mere intensifying prefix, but it must have been a real word once, meaning something like 'power', judging from its collocations. "Erminones" are 'the Mighty Ones'. This is the standard explanation, and it seems unassailable to me.

 

> Suffice it to say that Dio Cassius and Plutarch call Arminius, the leader of the Germani, "Armenius". It wouldn't be the last time that the Germans had a general of that particular nation.

 

You mean Armenian, or what?

 

Piotr