On 23 Jan 2007, at 01:18, Joao S. Lopes wrote:
> Could the ending of akhaiFos be analogous to elaiFa: "olive",
> ArgeiFos "Argive" ?
> akhaiFos < *aXa-iWos (same root of Akhileus, Akheron, Akheloos,
> Inakhos ?)
I commonly read of the first element in the name Achilles being
interpreted as "achos" (grief), but this smacks of folk etymology to
me. Having the same root as in Achaean (whatever that is!) wouldn't
seem out of place, though.
> elaiFos < *ela-iWos
> ArgeiFos < *Arges-iWos
For the last, I wondered about *arg- ("shine;white;silver"), though
this is little more than looking to fit a known PIE root to the shape
of the initial element of the ethnonym! :)
For Achaean, I thought of *ak- ("sharp"), suffixed forms of which
show up in various other Greek words, of course, but I also thought
if something so obvious was plausible, someone else would have
suggested it already! And, anyway, I couldn't think of how *ak-
might have been suffixed or augmented to create a proto-form like
*akHaiwó- ....
Cheers,
Carl
--
Carl Edlund Anderson
http://www.carlaz.com/