On 2008-12-05 22:10, tgpedersen wrote:
> And here is the answeryto your question: What is *xayw- doing in this
> suspicious company (ie. with -er- and -ter- suffixes)?
<aeternus> 'measured in aeons, everlasting' is derived from
<ae(vi)ta:t-> 'age, long time' with a combination of suffixes similar to
that found in <hi:bernus> or <hodiernus>. _Old_ adjectives of that type
contain -r- of various origin + *-ino-. E.g. <hi:bernus> reflects
*g^Heimerinos (cf. Gk. kHeimerinós); the *g^Heimeri- part can probably
be identified with the locative of *g^Hei-mn. (*g^Heimen(i), with
dissimilation before another nasal). Younger, analogically formed
derivatives like <modernus> (from <modo> 'just now') take on <-ernus> as
a ready-made suffix. <aeternus> belongs to the latter category.
Piotr