--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski <gpiotr@...>
wrote:
<<I've always taken it more or less for granted that the etymology
is *ség^H-to:r 'victor'.
Hi, Piotr --
hekto^r has an explanation in Greek. It has been traditionally
and quite logically derived from <echo^> and I think was even
understood classically to mean upholder, prop, one who holds
fast, etc. (ie, Hektor, the upholder, the mainstay of Troy). The
Greek word <hekto^r> is even attested to have referred to
anchors.
<echo^> itself has dozens of related meanings, almost all
connected to holding, holding on, holding fast, staying the
course, supporting or holding position or possesion, etc. But
you have to search through a lot of Liddell-Scott definitions
before you find anything anywhere close to "victor" --
But I take it you are going to Gothic and Sanskrit to have *ség^H-
mean victory or something like that? But how did that work in
Greek? There are lots of "holders" (-to^r) that could be
connected with <echo^> who weren't military in any way,
including pregnant women, someone steering a boat, someone
who stays in one position or someone owning land, someone
upholding something, etc. Can it be that Greek took a word for
victory and turned it into all those rather unrelated things? Or is it
more likely that the Gothic and Sanskrit meanings are very
specific and only vaguely connected to the wider and more
original meaning that shows up in Greek?
I hope you'll indulge this little bit of skepticism about
reconstructed semantics.
(There's another meaning given for <echo^> that I think has the
same morphology and maybe could be a less militant and more
reverent meaning for Hekto^r -- to carry, to bring,... used in
"brought as an offering." There is also <hexis> -- in one sense
meaning "skilled." And there were Romans named Sextus and
Sextor, meaning I believe that they were the sixth son.)
Perhaps Hektor was not a Greek word. But the place to start is
Greek, isn't it? If coincidentally a foreign name sounded like a
Greek name, I'd assume that the poet and his audience would
have assumed it was Greek and would have re-analyzed its
sounds to make it make sense in Greek.
Sorry to carry on like this, but hopefully you'll find it at least a little
useful.
Steve Long