12-04-2004 18:15, ND wrote:
> How true/false is "Hermann" as a Germanicized
> construction for Arminius (he of the Teutoburg Forest
> fame)?
>
> I think it was Martin Luther who came up with
> "Hermann." Do we have anything more recent for
> Arminius?
>
> Cheers,
> Nirmal Dass
It's definitely a folk etymology. Hermann reflects *xarja-manna-
(literally = 'army-man'), which would have been Latinised as something
like Chariomannus at that time. The Latin renderings of Germanic and
Celtic names were on the whole quite accurate and there is no reason to
suppose that the form Arminius was seriously garbled (especially as
Arminius had served in the Roman army and was personally well known to
Roman commanders). The Cheruscan form must have been something fairly
close to *arminjaz, however we etymologise it; perhaps a telescoped form
of a name beginning with *ermana- 'great'.
Piotr