--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "dgkilday57" <dgkilday57@...> wrote:
>
> [...]
>
> Hmm, <aequus> and the tribal name <Aequi>, <Aequicoli> have not to my
> knowledge been satisfactorily explained, but I do not see how to tie
> them in with <aes>. On the other hand Lehmann did write something
> about how <aeger> could be related to <aes>, something about smiths
> getting sick from the fumes. I'll have to look that one up.
>
In FS Risch 85-89 Lehmann derives <aes>, <aeger>, and numerous other
words in various IE languages from PIE *h2ey- (Pokorny's *a(:)i-(4),
IEW 11); the original sense was apparently 'to light on fire' vel sim.
(whence also *aidh-). This is not applicable to <aequus>. However, I
think we can explain it on the basis of *aiwo- and *okwo- (or *h2eyw-
and *h3ekW- if you like). The original sense of *aiwo- 'having life
force, youthful' etc. could have become 'persistent, enduring, steady'
in Old Latin, hence Lat. <aevum>, <aeta:s>, <aeternus> referring to
duration of time. With Lat. <anti:quus> we have a compound along the
lines of *anti-okwos 'looking before' > 'existing before (us)', so we
might posit a parallel *aiw-okwos 'looking persistent' > 'being steady'
> 'uniform, level', Old Lat. *aivoquos, later *aiviquos, *aiquos,
<aequus>. As for the tribal names, perhaps the early annalists used
<Aequicoli:> 'Plain-Dwellers' as a catch-all term for certain plain-
dwellers south of Rome, with this term reinterpreted later as a
diminutive, 'the Little Aequi', and <Aequi:> following as the preferred
generic term for these people in later annalists like Livy. There may
be a problem with that explanation, however, and the whole derivation
needs some additional work.
DGK