W dniu 2012-01-31 17:43, Joao S. Lopes pisze:
> Is there an etymology for the name of Octha of Kent, Anglo-Saxo king
> during the 6th century?
We find the variants <Octha> and <Octa>, which must be early Latinised
spellings for <Ohta>, the hypocoristic abbreviation of any name with
<o:ht> 'fear, terror' as the prototheme. The best known of such names is
of course <O:ht-here> (= ON Óttarr).
OE o:ht (cf. o:ga 'fright') is derived from Germanic *o:G- as in Goth.
o:g; cf. what seems to be a surviving prohibitive injunctive formula in
Gothic, <ni ogs þus> 'fear not', Goth. un-agands 'fearless' and the ON
name <Egill> (< *aGilaz). All these words ultimately go back to PIE
*h2agH-, with cognates in a few branches, including Gk. ákHos (s-stem)
'pain, distress', so there may be an etymological link between the
Germanic names and Achilles.
The long *o: of *o:G- probably comes from contracted reduplication in
the perfect *h2a-h2ogH-/*h2a-h2gH-, which underlies the Germanic
preterite-present.
Piotr