From: Rick McCallister
Message: 66012
Date: 2010-03-20
--- In cybalist@... s.com, "Joao S. Lopes" <josimo70@.. .> wrote:
>
> That's a great explanation for Latin <be:stia>
> *dweyos, g. dweyesos > *dueios > Old Latin *beius, *beus, *bius, *beio:r
> *dweye-to > *dweye(s)-to > *dueiestos > *Old Latin *be:stus
>
> but... *dweyesto- would mean "frighten" and not "frightful", wouldn't it?
As with *genh1es-, *genh1os 'that which is generated, kind, type', the original sense of *dweyes-, *dweyos would be 'that which is feared, something frightful'. The Italic adjective *dweyestos (I see no reason for *dweye-to-) would then mean 'associated with something frightful', i.e. 'frightening' . In this explanation it would refer to a particularly large or vicious animal. The form <be:stia> appears to be a collective used as a singular, parallel to the Hebrew pluralis magnitudinis of 'behemoth', used as 'very large animal' and construed as a singular.
I am indebted to Harold Whitehall of the WNWD for this derivation of <be:stia> from *dwey-, though I had to supply the details. Usually HW provides no further information on Latin words not directly related to native Germanic words in English.
DGK