--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Joao S. Lopes" <josimo70@...>
wrote:
> From a Brazilian dictionary of Italian surnames:
> BRIGHENTI = regional variation of BRIGANTI
> BRIGANTI = plural of BRIGANTE
> BRIGANTE = < Latin brigantis (see Bergantino)
> BERGANTINO = < Celtic briga "mount, hill"; brigantes [were]
> mercenaries who have hidden themselves in the mountains, later
> building Castrum Bragantini, the city Bergantino.
Many thanks, Joao.
You may recall I had pointed to this proposed etymology for the It.
noun brigante in an earlier message:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/60051
> I have also seen an etymological attempt at connecting the It. term
> brigante with Proto-Celtic *brig- 'hill' (from the same root of the
> goddess-name Brigantia, see above), which would make of the
> original briganti a troop of highlanders, but I think this is the
> weakest among the hypotheses I have taken notice of.
The fact is, that a derivation of brigante from the verb brigare
seems almost inescapable. 'Brigante' looks, under all aspects, the
regular present participle of 'brigare', being formed by adding the
accusative/ablative ending of the Latin present participle, -nte(m)
to the thematic root of the said (Vulgar Latin?) verb, briga-.
If 'brigante' was formed on a Celtic loan word *brig- 'hill' (a
noun), why is that it has this present-participial-looking ending?
(In English, it would sound something like 'the hilling'.)
As I already wrote, the problem is that the etymology of the It.
verb brigare is opaque. Its earliest attested meaning is 'to deal,
to frequent (s.o.), to meet in small groups, to intrigue (secret
plans)', while the meaning 'to strife, fight, brawl, quarrel' is
attested only (slightly) later. This makes it difficult to derive
this verb from a posited Proto-Celtic root *bri:go- 'strength' as
proposed, among others, by Calvert Watkins. On the contrary, the
derivation of the It. noun briga 'strength, vigour' > 'strife,
quarrel, controversy' > 'nuisance, harassment, difficult problem'
from Proto-Celtic *bri:go- doesn't appear to be disputed.
I am still wondering whether briga and brigare, though their
semantics converged at a certain point in time, could not have had
two different etymological origins.
Thanks and best regards,
Francesco