--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Joao S. Lopes" <josimo70@...> wrote:
>
> Any comment about the etymology of Latin name of the sturgeon, acipe:nser ?
>
> this -pe:nser seems to be < *pentSter- <*pend-ter? Or an ending like anser, passer?
Modern Venetian <ko'peze> requires a Romance protoform *accu'pe:se, so the correct Latin form is <accupensis> with original accent on the antepenult. This accent shows that the word cannot have been formed as a Latin compound, despite the ingenuity of some publishing etymologists.
I cannot pretend to know this with certainty, but I suspect that this word comes from an Illyrian compound meaning 'water-ox' or the like. In this view the first element is cognate with Latin <aqua>, undergoing regular *-kW- > *-kkW- > *-kk- in Illyrian. The second element may be compared to Albanian <pende">, <pe"nde"> 'Paar Ochsen' usw. < *penta: 'Gespann' (Pokorny, IEW 988). The word would have been borrowed from Illyrian into Venetic, thence into Latin, retaining its original accent until the present day in its local form.
DGK