At 3:49:09 AM on Thursday, September 25, 2008, Arnaud
Fournet wrote:
[...]
> By the way,
> What is the etymology of Welsh cadfan "warrior" ?
So far as I can tell, there is no <cadfan> 'warrior'; there
is a <cadfan> 'battlefield', and there is a masculine name
<Cadfan>. And there's a plural noun <cadfaon> 'soldiers,
warriors'; I'm not aware of a singular form.
> and Cadmon, Catumanus, etc ?
The first element is in each case from PCelt. *katu-
'battle' < PIE *katu- 'fight'. <Catumanus> is a Latinized
version of <Catumannos>, from *Catumandos; this is the
source of the name <Cadfan>, and <Cædmon> is an OE
borrowing. The second element has been derived from the
zero grade of *mendH- 'to learn', with some such sense as
'qui est prudent, sage'.
Brian