Lugians

The Lugian habit of suddenly allying themselves with the Romans can not have left a good impression on the neighbors they attacked.
Which gives me an idea for an new etymology for their name.

Note these two antonymic (well, almost) homonyms from Pokorny:

1. leugh- ,lügen'. "to lie (ie. tell untruths)"
Got. liugan, as. ahd. liogan, ags. le:ogan ,lügen',
aisl. lju:ga ,lügen, fehlen, fehlschlagen';
ahd. as. lugina, ags. lygen ,Lüge',
mhd. luc m. ,Lug',
ahd. luggi, lucki, as. luggi, ags. lycge lügnerisch'
(= slav. lUz^I),
aisl. lygi f., ahd. lugi: f. ,Lüge', ags. lyge m. ,Lüge'
(: slav. lUz^a ,Lüge');
ahd. lougan m., lougna f. ,das Leugnen' =
aisl. laun f. ,ds., Verheimlichung',
got. analaugns ,verborgen', laugnjan ,leugnen' usw.;
wohl auch ahd. lochon, j-Verbum lucchen, geminiert
aisl. lokka, ags. loccian, mnl. locken, ahd. lockon ,locken';
dazu mhd. Gelücke ,Glück'?

lit. lu:goti ,bitten', lett. lùgt ds.;

abg. lUz^o, lUgati ,lügen', lUz^I lügnerisch, Lügner', lUz^a ,Lüge'.


2. leugh-, lugh- ,Eid, Schwur'; "oath"
nur kelt. und germ.
Air. lu(i)ge n., cymr. llw m., bret. le ,Eid, Schwur' (*lughyom);
got. liugan, aida ,heiraten', liuga ,Ehe', (*Eid),
ahd. urliugi (*uz-liugja Krieg' (,*vertragsloser Zustand'),
schwundstufig
mnd. or-loge, orloch, as. orlag, -logi, afries. orloch ds.
(davon hat auch mhd. urlage ,Schicksal' usw.
z. T. die Bedeutung ,Krieg' bezogen,
s. unter legh- ,liegen');
afries. logia ,heiraten'.

These two senses can't have been in use at the same time in any
language for any length of time (the Gothic homonym liugan 'marry'
and 'lie' must have been awkward to use unambiguously). I therefore
propose that sense 1) "to lie (tell untruths)" is a sarcastic use if
the original sense 2) "to swear", used under the impression of the
behavior of the Lugians: "to swear an oath Lugian style".

As for the origin, if we assume *lug- "oath" (Pokorny proposes -gh,
but this is based on the assumption that the word is echt-Germanic,
otherwise -g will do) is originally from the ar-/ur- language we can
assume u/i alternation (cf. the river Lippe/Lupenza and the series of
alternative names: Lugii, Lugi, Lygii, Ligii, Lugiones, Lygians,
Ligians, Lugians, Lougoi) and connect the word with the *lig- of
Latin religio: etc

4. leig-, leig^- ,binden'.

Alb. lith,
Pass. lidhem ,binde, verbinde, gürte',
lidhë, lidhe ,Band, Fessel; Garbenband, Bruchband';

lat.
ligo:, -a:re ,binden, zusammenbinden',
obliga:tio: ,Verpflichtung';
li:ctor ,Träger der fasces';

mnd. li:k ,Band', daraus aisl. li:k ,Saumtau',
ablautend wohl mhd. geleich ,artus, Gelenk';

mit g: klr.
polýhaty s´a ,sich verbinden',
zalyháty ,in Bande schlagen, schnüren, anknüpfen, in Beschlag nehmen',
nalýhaty ,Zaum, Schlinge anlegen, fesseln',
vermutlich auch lit. laigõnas ,Bruder der Frau', wozu
loigo:ntían: phratrían Hes.;
hitt. li-in-ga-in Akk. ,Eid',
li-ik-zi (lenkzi) ,schwört',
3. Pl. li-in-kán-zi.


If this is so, then proto-Germanic saw the world from the eyes of the
Marcomanni or the Suebi, those who had reason not to trust the Lugian
liers. The old sense of the word ("swear") survives in insular
Celtic, in Gothic (the Lugii never attacked them) and in remote Old
Frisian which might not even have existed at the time so that the
word is from the NWB substrate, plus the opaque composite *uz-liugja
"treaty-less, law-less state", thus "war", survived in Dutch and
German.

The nearest possible relative in Finno-Ugric is (UEW) *luke- "number;
count", which in Saami also means "tell, say, speak one's mind"; I
think that's too remote semantically.


Torsten