Re: Germani/germen and Cimbri/kīm-, same idea behind the names

W dniu 2011-08-05 15:37, Torsten pisze:

> Although this etymon has been classed as "absurd",5
> it has also found supporters among prominent scholars, e. g. Below,
> Holtzmann, Laistner, Hartmann, Birt,6 Gudeman7 and Collinder. As far as
> I know, after Collinder nobody has seriously taken into consideration
> the Latin theory. Nevertheless, 1 think there must be something in it,
> and in this paper I shall bring under discussion a new aspect in favour
> of the Latin origin of the name. I am not going to discuss the previous
> theories in detail, but will content myself with taking up facts and
> opinions that are necessary to elucidate my own stand: point on the problem.

Just for the record, I, for one, take the Latin theory seriously and
can't see what should be so "absurd" about it. My personal guess is that
_Germa:nus_ is simply a Latin rendering of Germanic *swe:Baz, meaning
roughly 'of the same ancestral stock'. In other words, I think that
Cicero's pun "Germanum Cimber occidit" ('Cimber has killed his brother
German') was probably an etymological one.

Piotr