From: george knysh
Message: 55652
Date: 2008-03-22
> > GK: There are alternate etymologies in the****GK: And what would that be?****
> Wiki
> > "Torun" article. Have a look. I suspect that the
> > Germanic etymologies all have to do with the town
> > founded in 1233. This is possible because we don't
> > apparently know the name of the Slavic/Polish
> > settlement which existed there from ca. 600 CE. So
> the
> > German etymologies argue for the original German
> > source of the 1233 "Thorn" and the Polish
> etymologies
> > try to figure out what this "Thorn" might have
> been in
> > the period 600-1233. But it may have been called
> by an
> > entirely different name then! In any case, none of
> > this really matters for your thesis, because there
> > seems to have been no settlement there of any sort
> > between ca. 400 BCE and ca. 600 CE. So anyone
> > "starting out" from that spot (if they did which
> is
> > more than wholly doubtful) in the 1rst c. BCE
> would
> > hardly call themselves after a name which did not
> > arise (certainly) for another 1300 years or
> (possibly)
> > for another 650 or so...
>
> I could add another Germanic etymology: OLG turn,
> MLG torn, Late ON
> turn, corresponding to OHG turri, turru, MHG turn,
> turm, OE torr
> "tower", from Lat. turris etc. The -m in German Turm
> must have kept
> that one out of etymologists' minds.
>
> But, on the other hand, place names even of deserted
> places can stay,
> if they have a sufficiently good story to them.
> Since we are in that
> end of the history of the Hermunduri, there might be
> a connection to
> the Taurisci?
>____________________________________________________________________________________
>
> Torsten
>
>
>