I came across this on wikipedia... and we all know that such entries
must be carefully examined ... so I figured I would get the opinion
of the experts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lugus
Juliette Wood interprets his name as deriving from Proto-Celtic
*lugios, oath, which would support this identification as Mercury is
a god of contracts.
(then skip a bit)
Lugus's name has been interpreted as deriving from the Indo-European
root *leuk-, light, and he has long been considered a sun god. This
etymology is problematic because Proto-Indo-European *k did not under
any known circumstances become *g- in Proto-Celtic, but remained *k.
The direct descendent of the Proto-Indo-European root *leuk- (white
light) in Proto-Celtic is *leuk- as in the name of the Celtic
lightning god Leucetios. So if one applies the principles of Occam's
razor, *leuk- is not the most plausible etymology.
The contemporary compilation of etymological lexica at the
universities of Leiden and Wales ([1] [2] )are providing greater
insight into the proto-linguistics of Celtic words. These lexica
suggest that this name is derived from Proto-Celtic *Lug-u-s, but
this Proto-Celtic lexeme exhibits great ambiguity in its semantics
both in Proto-Celtic and in Proto-Indo-European.
The Proto-Celtic lexeme *Lug-u-s may be related to the initial
morpheme in the Proto-Celtic *lug-râ (moon), in turn derived from the
Proto-Indo-European root *leug- meaning blackness, dimness, darkness
and to which is related the Proto-Indo-European *lugu- meaning raven
and *loug- meaning swamp, peat-bog. If this be the root of the name,
it would suggest that Lugus meant something comparable to "Shady Male
[Spirit]" or "Shady [Character]". Proto-Celtic *Lug-u-s may equally
be related to Proto-Celtic *lug- meaning "oath, pledging, assurance"
on the one hand and "deceive" on the other (derived from Proto-Indo-
European *leugh- avowal, deception). If this be the root of the name,
it would suggest that Lugus means "Pledging and Deceitful Male
[Spirit]".
Since the notions of "deceitfulness" and "shadiness" are often
closely related semantically in many of the world's languages, Lugus
may have meant "Sinister Male [Spirit]."
Proto-Celtic *Lug-u-s may also be related to Proto-Celtic *leug-
meaning league. It may additionally be cognate with Proto-Celtic
*lewo- denoting lion, lynx or else derived from Proto-Indo-European
*lougo- meaning aid, assistance, service.
For details, q.v. [3] [4]. If this last instance be the root of the
name, it would imply that *Lugus conveyed the semantics of "Helpful
Male Spirit". Despite unsubstantiated claims to the contrary, the
Irish word lugh does not mean "shining light", nor is it related to
any Proto-Indo-European root connoting "luminosity". The claim that
it does may arise from confusion with the related Irish word lugha,
meaning "less" and cognate with the English words levity and light in
the sense of "not heavy". The Irish word lugh connotes ideas
of "blasphemy, cussing, lies, bond, joint, binding oath" (q.v. [5]).
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Any thoughts on whether this seems valid or whether the more widely
known *leuk- origin still seems correct despite what this author
said??
Sincerely,
Aydan