Re: [tied] The Chaideinoi, all honourable men

----- Original Message -----
From: "Daniel J. Milton" <dmilt1896@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 09, 2003 1:31 AM
Subject: Re: [tied] The Chaideinoi, all honourable men


>> The name is reflected as <heiðnir> in Old Norse, but they were 'honourable men', not merely 'heathens'.

> I'm missing something in that last comment (maybe from not being familiar with the Old Norse word). Are you implying a different etymology for Eng. 'heathen' than the standard "people of the heath" < I.-E. *kaito- "wald, umbebauter Landstrich" (Pokorny 819)? I do have a vague memory of a suggestion that the similarity of sound with the Gk. 'ethnoi' had something to do with the usage of the word for "pagan".
> I've got to get the OED for my PC!

I just mean that the ethnonym <heiðnir> (coll. of *xaid-i:na-) is connected with ON heiðr (*xaid-a-z) and not etymologically connected with the ON word for 'heathen', <heiðinn>, Gmc. *xaiþ-ana- ~ *xaiþ-i:na-. The 'heathen' word is usually referred to *haiþi- 'heath, open country', and there have been long arguments to what extent *xaiþana- in the religious sense can be regarded as a folk-etymological adaptation of Gk. <(ta) etHne:> 'gentiles' or a loan-translation of Lat. pa:ga:nus 'country-dweller'.

Piotr