Thracian, etnonym's etymology

From: Joao S. Lopes
Message: 62451
Date: 2009-01-11

What would be the etymology of Thracia (place) and Thrax (people)? Is it the place name after the people, or vice versa (chicken-egg dilemma)?
The Thracians appeared in Attic myths as a kind of fictional northern people (or pre-people), linked to Boreas and Ares). Could be thrax mean something like "north"?
Could be do:ros and thrak- two divergent (dialectal) forms of the same pre-Greek word? If we see do:ros as *dorHos, thrak- could be a cognate, from an older proto-form *drx, *trx-, *Trk- (T = th).
a- ANother possibility is relate them to Anatolian root *tarXu- (cf. Tarhunza, Tarquinius, Tarkhon).
b - Alternatively, Do:ros could be a "Macedonoid" cognate of PIE (dHersos, dHorso. dHrsu "strong, bold, dareful")
c- or... maybe they came from root *dHwer- "door, outside", something like the "outside people" ?

JS Lopes


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