--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott" <BMScott@...>
wrote:
>> "dusmenes"= malveillant, hostile
> This surely must be a Greek formation, from <dus-> 'bad' and
<ménos> 'spirit, disposition'; cf. <Eumenídes>.
Of course <dus-mene:s> is an attested Greek adjective, cognate to
Skt. dur-manas- 'evil disposition, perversity of mind' (both from
*dus-menes-, cf. also Iranian *dus^-manah-). There's nothing
specifically "Balkan" about it; it's an inherited IE word. Turkic
duSman looks to me like an obvious loan from Persian (I haven't done
the checking but I'd be surprised if it were something else).
Nevertheless, it was the Turks, not Iranians or Thracians, that (re)
introduced the word in the Balkan region.
Piotr