From: ND
Message: 31899
Date: 2004-04-13
> 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
>