From: dgkilday57
Message: 65572
Date: 2009-12-31
>First things last. In <himilizzi> usw. the Gmc. suffix *-itja apparently functions as a collective, parallel to its use in OE <Elmet> 'Elmwood' (cf. Kluge, Nom. Stammb. 2. Aufl. 36). The sense of <himil> here was neither 'heaven' nor 'ceiling', but 'painted panel', and an assembly of these constituted one ceiling, as indicated by a gloss of Hrabanus Maurus:
> [...]
>
> Here's a *very* tentative idea:
>
> I have a suspicion the Germanic "heaven" is a loan
>
> Wortschatz der Germanischen Spracheinheit:
> 'hemina, hemila m. Himmel, Zimmerdecke. g. himins m. Himmel;
> an. himinn m. dass.;
> as. heBan und himil m.,
> afries. himel, himul,
> ags. heofon m., engl. heaven;
> ahd. himil m. Himmel, Zimmerdecke,
> mnd. himel, nhd. Himmel.
>
> Davon abgeleitet
> ahd. himilizi, himilze,
> mhd. himelze, himelz n. Zimmerdecke, Baldachin,
> mnd. hemelte Zimmerdecke, ndl. gehemelte Gaumen (aus he-militia-).
> Vgl. gr. kmélethron. (73:8)'
>
> 1) the odd suffix -et-,
> 2) the inlaut alternation w/m and
> 3) the auslaut alternation l/n (some kind of heteroclitic)
> sets it apart from other Germanic words (except for *litel- and *mikel- also having property 3)