Re: elementum

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "dgkilday57" <dgkilday57@...> wrote:

>
> > I seem to remember reading that elementum was from Greek via Etruscan. Is that true?
>
> It is true that you read that (possibly in Palmer), but the etymology is silly. Supposedly, Greek <elephanta> nt. pl. 'ivory (letters)' was borrowed into Etruscan, then corrupted into <elementa> in Latin.
>

The word is elementum, and there's no reason to think Latin borrowed a neuter plural form.

> This is allegedly justified by Praenestine Etruscan <Melerpanta> 'Bellerophon', [...]
>

To be more precise, the Greek form is Bellerophónte:s, where /b/ is rendered as Etruscan /m/ in Melerpanta. Thus a hypothetical Etruscan form borrowed from Greek eléphantos would have /p/ instead of /m/, making unfeasible this etymology.

> The most plausible view is that Roman schoolboys used *elemena 'the LMN's' as we use 'the ABC's', [...]
>

This is pretty unjustified unless they used a cypher were ABC were coded as LMN.

On the other hand, Latin elementum is translated as Greek stoikheion, related to stikháomai 'to proceed in formation; to go along another', stíkhos 'row, line; frontline; verse, line (in writing)'. So the semantic motivation is 'to line, to row (letters)'.