--- In cybalist@..., "Piotr Gasiorowski" <gpiotr@...> wrote:
>
>
> But Sarmatian loans _are_ recognisable, even if they spread to West
Germanic (one of them is English <path>; its a post-Grimm loan, and
therefore Sarmatian/Alanic rather than Scythian). Words with unclear
etymologies always attract the attention of linguists, and I doubt if
Thracian or Dacian loans could pass for native Germanic lexemes. The
well-known cases of etymologically obscure words in Germanic are not
restricted to Gothic or even to Gothic and West Germanic.
>
> Piotr
I suppose it is attributed to Sarmatian rather than Getic, Dacian,
Thracian or any other of the 25 languages Mithridates spoke faute de
mieux?
On the other hand I do know that the word occurs in Iranic (I won't
cause embarassment by trying to remember its exact form). Is it used
also in a figurative-religious sense (which would explain why it was
loaned, unless the Germani used Iranic pathfinders)?
Torsten