From: Rick McCallister
Message: 67899
Date: 2011-07-05
--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski <gpiotr@...> wrote:
>
> W dniu 2011-06-25 23:12, Piotr Gasiorowski pisze:
>
> > No, that's why I argue for vowel syncope in the initial syllable. There
> > are a few examples of stl- in Latin, though. Apart from <stlocus> we
> > have OLat. stli:s > Class.Lat. li:s, -tis 'lawsuit', <stlatta ~ stla:ta>
> > 'cargo-boat, barge' and the derived adjective <stlatta:rius ~
> > stla:ta:rius> 'imported by boat' (both of which are rare poetic words
> > preserved in their archaic form till Classical times), plus the clearly
> > onomatopoeic hapax <stloppus> 'slap on an inflated cheek'.
>
> I forgot <stlembus> 'slow, sluggish', and a few etymologically opaque
> proper names beginning with this cluster.
Possibly <lancea> belongs here also. Alessio compared Tuscan <schiancia>, <schianza>, <stiance>, <stianza> 'cattail, Typha latifolia', noting also that Veronese <lancia> denotes several types of reedy plants growing in swamps (Studi Etruschi 20:122-3, 1952). In his view, *stlancea was probably borrowed from an Etruscan word meaning 'type of swamp-reed' (from which lances could be made) and hence 'lance' itself.
I find it more probable that <lancea> is of P-Italic origin based on an Illyrian loanword, and the plants in the modern dialects were named after the weapon. True lances were twisted with a leathern thong during release, and the spinning imparted greater accuracy than simple throwing. Hence the Indo-European root could be *slenk- 'to wind, turn, twist' (IEW 961-2), with the passive noun *slonkóm 'twistable thing, thong' becoming Illyrian *slankam, this in turn borrowed into P-Italic as *slankom and producing an adjective *slankejo- 'involving a thong'. I hypothesize that in Old Sabine, the lance was distinguished from the ordinary spear as *(fasta: slankeja:) 'thong-spear', commonly *slankeja: for short. When the archaic Romans adopted the weapon, they would have borrowed the name as Old Latin *stlancea:. Roman Latin of course simplified OL stl- to l- as in other words, but Alessio's comparison suggests that Tuscan Latin retained stl-. If this scenario is correct, the weapon must have become obsolete for Roman military use later, since Varro thought it came from Spain, and Festus from Greece.
***R Lances were made of cane-like reed in Meso-America for fighting, hunting and fishing and still are for Indigenous folkdances
The cattail has a club-shaped spike which might be considered to resemble a lance. Reedy plants generally have sharp tips. That a plant can be named after such a weapon is pointedly illustrated by English <spearmint>.
DGK