On 2008-02-16 19:42, Richard Wordingham wrote:
> No. The question is not 'Is Juggernaut is derived from Jagannath?'.
> It is whether this can be *conclusively proved*, a rather different
> question. I am sure this example was chosen because the derivation
> seems obvious. The rider is because of a fear that apparent proofs
> can be adduced for anything.
Here, of course, it's as sure as anything that <juggernaut> can't be an
old word in English, since there is no native source of initial /dZ/.
Indo-Aryan <jaganna:tHa->, on the other hand, it's at least as old as
the Mahabharata, and there is direct philological evidence that it was
borrowed from Hindi into English. It's _ultimate_ etymology is of course
a different question. The first element of the compound is IE. I'm less
sure about <na:tHá-> 'protector, lord' (from the verb <ná:tHate> 'seek
the help of, beseech'), though it has been variously connected with
Celtic *sna:d- 'protect' or Goth. niþan, ne:d- 'help'.
Piotr