Re: Hermes again

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Rick McCallister <gabaroo6958@...> wrote:

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> --- On Tue, 4/14/09, dgkilday57 <dgkilday57@...> wrote:
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> [...]
>
> Beekes considers 'Hermes' to be unanalyzable Pre-Greek, but I am not so sure. He admits a possible connection with Attic-Ionic <herme:neús> 'interpreter, expounder', which he also regards as Pre-Greek. Whatever the origin of the Greek suffix -eús, it was clearly productive in forming denominal terms for persons connected with specified things or activities, thus <hippeús> 'horseman', <agreús> 'hunter', <bapheús> 'dyer', etc. The suffix -é:n, -e:n- in turn forms denominals like <leskhé:n> 'chatterer' from <léskhe:> 'public place; gossip, chatter', hence in fact <leskhe:neúo: > 'I chat with' beside <herme:neúo:> 'I interpret'. A presumed noun *hermé:n could thus have been derived from an abstract *hérma:, Att.-Ion. *hérme: 'articulate speech, connected discourse', formed like <phé:me:> 'speech, report' (Doric <phá:ma:>, Latin <fa:ma>) and leading in turn to <herme:neús>. The IE root would be *ser- 'to line up, join together, connect'
> whence also, by a different suffix, Lat. <sermo:> 'connected speech, discourse' (Pokorny's *ser-(4), IEW p. 911).

Is this root cognate to Latin sermo:?

I believe so. I can't find it here in the online IEW but the AHD puts <sermo:> under the equivalent root.

DGK