--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "dgkilday57" <dgkilday57@...> wrote:
>
> > While <ru:fus> is obviously borrowed from P-Italic (not only into
Latin but into Etruscan, where we find Raufe, Rufe, Rafe as regional
variants of the cognomen Ru:fus), <ro:bus> and <ro:bi:go:> are not. The
-b- cannot come from any known P-Italic language, and we must be dealing
with a Q-Italic dialect closer to Latin than to Faliscan (which has
<efiles> 'aediles' and the like). The problem with Bhr.'s designation
of "Latial" or non-Roman Latin is that <Ro:ma> itself probably comes
from this dialect. It evidently lowered *u: (or the diphthong predating
it) to *o: before labials. The city was founded at the major ford of
the Tiber, and fords occur where rivers are broad, so we can understand
*Ru:ma 'Broad Space' formed like <spu:ma> with the root of <ru:s>.
Likewise <abdo:men> (var. <abdu:men> cited by Charisius), formed like
<nu:men>, <lu:men>, from *deu- 'to place': reg. Roman Latin <abdu:men>
'a putting away, place to put away' (i.e. food; cf. Johnny Depp's remark
that ultra-skinny girlfriend Kate Moss did eat, and in fact "could
really put it away"). Provisionally, perhaps we could label this
dialect "Tiberian".
> >
> On second thought, if <Ro:ma> is derived from *reuH- 'to spread out,
make room' (as in Lat. <ru:s> 'countryside' from *rewHos 'expanse,
spread', Gmc. *ru:maz 'space, room' from *ruH-mo- 'extended, spread out,
etc.), it is better to explain the morphology without going outside
standard Latin.
>
> A plausible parallel is Lat. <po:mum> 'fruit', for which Umb.
<Puemune> dat. sg. 'to Pomonus' requires an Italic stem *powemo-
'fruitful'. This can be taken as containing the /o/-grade of the root
*peu- 'to propagate one's kind, procreate' whose zero-grade implemental
noun *putlo- 'implement of procreation, offspring, son' is reflected as
Skt. <putra->, Osc. acc. sg. <puklum>.
>
> Formed like *powemo-, Itc. *row(H)emo- 'expansive, broad' would apply
to the wide part of a river where fording is feasible, and <Ro:ma> would
simply be the fem. sg. of this adjective.
>
One question: is the Tiber fordable in Rome? Otherwise, I'd prefer the
classsical etymology from Oscan *sru:ma 'river', through an Etruscan
intermediate.