List of English words of Etruscan origin explained

This is a list of English words that may be of Etruscan origin, and were borrowed through Latin, often via French. The Etruscan origin of most of these words is disputed, and some may be of Indo-European or other origin. The question is made more complex by the fact that the Etruscans borrowed many Greek words in modified form. Typically if a Latin word has an unknown, uncertain or disputed origin, it is considered a possible candidate for deriving in whole or in part from an Etruscan word; however, native Etruscan must then be distinguished from Greek. If no Etruscan word is clearly identifiable sometimes an attempt is made to reconstruct one. Etruscan derivations therefore are highly variable in probability; that is, some are highly speculative and others more likely.

List

ace : from Middle English aas, from Old French as, from Latin as, "a whole, a unit, copper coin", possibly Etruscan. As was a Roman coin and was also a unit of weight equal to about one troy pound.[1]
  • antenna : from antenna < antemna, "yard-arm, sail". Possibly Etruscan *antithemna > *ant(th)emna from Greek ἀνατιθέμενος anatithémenos, something set up.[2]
  • Anthony : from Latin Antōnius, a Roman gens claimed by Marcus Antonius to descend from Ἄντων (Ántōn), a son of Heracles, but the gens is probably Etruscan in origin, most likely derived from Ani, the Etruscan god of the sky. Previous claims asserted an Ancient Greek (compare ἄνθος ánthos, “flower” or ἄνθρωπος, "man, human") origin with an unetymological excrescent -h- but this remains dubious.[3]
  • April : Latin aprilis probably from Etruscan form apera- (found the Tabula Capuana, a ritual calendar line 8--the next section mentions May anpile), which form may come from Greek Aphrodite.[4] There is also a gloss that equates Etruscan Abreus with Latin Aprilis mensis.[5]
  • arena : from arēna "arena" < harēna, "arena, sand" < archaic hasēna < Sabine fasēna, unknown Etruscan word as the basis for fas- with Etruscan ending -ēna.[6]
  • atrium : From Latin atrium which both Breyer and Bonfante consider to be a likely loan from Etruscan (along with other architectural terms such as fenestra "window" and cella "chamber").[7] [8] But both Watkins and de Vaan trace it back to Proto-Indo-European (though they disagree on the exact root).[9]
  • autumn : from autumnus "autumn". Just as Etruscan veltha, an earth god, appears as Latin Vola or Olta and is in Voltumna and Vertumnus, so the parallel construction autumnus ought to come from Etruscan autu-, related to avil, "year": *av(i)-to-m(e)nos, with loss of the l. There are some names with both l and t: avlethaium, authnal, avtle, and so on, which appear related to autu or auta in Venetic, the idea being that autumn signifies the passing of the year.[10]
  • belt : from balteus, "sword belt." The sole connection between this word and Etruscan is a statement by Marcus Terentius Varro that it was of Etruscan origin. All else is speculation.[11]
  • catamite : Latin, from Etruscan catmite, from the Ancient Greek Ganymede, cupbearer to Zeus. Bonfante and most others accept this etymology.[12]
  • ceremony : possibly Etruscan or possibly referring to Etruscan rites performed at Caere.[13]
  • defenestration, fenestra : Both Bonfante and Whatmough accept the probability that Latin fenestra was a loan from a derivative of Etruscan fnes-. Some of the other reasonably certain loans also deal with elements of architecture, for example atrium and cella.[14] [15]
  • element : from elementum, 'letter'.
  • histrionic : from histrionicus, from histrio, "actor".
  • letter : from Old French lettre, from Latin littera, which may have derived, via Etruscan, from the Greek "διφθέρα" (writing tablet).
  • mantissa :
  • market :
  • military : Etruscan or perhaps related to Greek homilos, "assembled crowd" (compare homily).[16]
  • mundane : from mundus, 'earth', from munth, 'land'.
  • mutule :
  • palace, palate, palatine : One of the seven hills of Rome. Either from Latin palus "stake" or the Etruscan shepherd goddess Pales.[17]
  • people :From Latin populus by way of Old French peuple, possibly of Etruscan origin.[18] After a lengthy discussion, Whatmough concludes that it is not completely certain that Latin populus is an Etruscan loanword, but that such an etymology is "satisfactory at the morphological and phonological levels."[19]
  • person : from Middle English persone, from Old French persone, from Latin persona, "mask", probably from Etruscan phersu, "mask".[20] Another sources, however, links the Etruscan word as a derivative of Greek πρὀσωπον prosōpon, "mask".[21]
  • Rome : from 'Ruma', the name of one of the Etruscan tribes, or 'Rumon', which was what the Etruscans called the Tiber River, possibly of Etruscan origin as ruma was one of the Etruscan gentes, from rum, “teat”.
  • satellite : from Latin satelles, meaning "bodyguard, attendant", perhaps from Etruscan satnal.[22] Bonfante, otherwise quite skeptical of many proposed loans, calls it "quite likely" that Latin satteles is from Etruscan.[23] Whatmough considers Latin satteles "as one of our securest Etruscan loans in Latin."[24]
  • scurrilous :
  • Serge (first name)
  • serve : the word serve derives from Latin servire ('to serve') and servus ('a slave'), which have sometimes been thought to derive from Etruscan.[25] However, a detailed analysis has preferred an Indo-European etymology for the Latin word.[26]
  • spurious : From Latin spurius "born out of wedlock, illegitimate" from Etruscan spur-al "of the city" because, as Pisani proposed, children not claimed by their fathers were considered to belong to the city.[27] Whatmough, however, rejects Pisani's claim, both because of the late attestation of the Latin term, but also because the Etruscan root spur is now seen as meaning "community" not "city"; and furthermore, in any case, the form that would have to be the immediate predecessor of Latin spurius would have to be Etruscan spurie which may have a different meaning, and in one instance seems to be the name of a person with a named father.[28]
  • triumph : From Old Latin triumpus, probably a loan word via Etruscan from Greek thriambos, a hymn to Dionysus.[29]
  • vernacular : from vernaculus, 'domestic', from verna, 'a native slave'.
  • viburnum : from Latin viburnum, likely Etruscan in origin. Compare laburnum, alaternus, basterna, lacerna, santerna, pincerna, clarnus, all strongly suspected to be derived from Etruscan or related languages.[30]

    • Bibliography

    See also


    Notes and References

    1. American Heritage Dictionary, New College Edition (1976), page 76
    2. Breyer (1993) pp. 174–175.
    3. Web site: Anthony . 9 February 2024 .
    4. van der Meer, L. B. "Some comment on the Tabula Capuana," in: Studi Etruschi 77, 2014 [2015], 149-175. p.166
    5. Pallottino, M. (1968) Testimonia Linguae Etruscae. Firenze. Gloss #818
    6. Breyer (1993) p. 259.
    7. Bonfante, G. "Etruscan Word in Latin" Word 36.3. 1985. p. 207
    8. Breyer, Gertraud (1993). Etruskisches Sprachgut im Lateinischen unter Ausschluss des spezifisch onomastischen Bereiches (in German). Peeters Publishers. p.1040
    9. de Vaan, M. Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series, Volume: 7), 2011.
    10. Breyer (1993) pp 412–413.
    11. Book: Donaldson, John William. Varronianus: A Critical and Historical Introduction to the Ethnography of Ancient Italy and to the Philological Study of the Latin Language. 154. 2. J. W. Parker & Son. 1852. London, Cambridge. Breyer (1993) pp 428–429 reports on an attempt to bring in Hittite and Gothic connecting it with a totally speculative root *-lst-.
    12. Bonfante, G. "Etruscan Words in Latin" Word 36.3. 1985. pp. 204
    13. Web site: ceremony Origin and meaning of ceremony by Online Etymology Dictionary . www.etymonline.com . 26 December 2020 . en.
    14. Whatmough, M. Studies in Etruscan loanwords in Latin PhD thesis, University College London. 2017. p.282-214. https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10121058/1/Studies_in_the_Etruscan_loanwo.pdf
    15. Bonfante, G. "Etruscan Word in Latin" Word 36.3. 1985. p. 207
    16. Web site: military Etymology, origin and meaning of military by etymonline . 2022-03-04 . www.etymonline.com . en.
    17. Web site: palace Search Online Etymology Dictionary . 2022-03-04 . www.etymonline.com.
    18. Web site: people Search Online Etymology Dictionary . 2022-03-04 . www.etymonline.com.
    19. Whatmough, M. Studies in Etruscan loanwords in Latin PhD thesis, University College London. 2017. p.204. https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10121058/1/Studies_in_the_Etruscan_loanwo.pdf
    20. American Heritage Dictionary, New College Edition, page 978
    21. Berge, Lukas van der (2023). Phersu, Prosōpon, Persona: On Legal Personhood, Roman Sculpture and the Art of Law. Utrecht University School of Law Research Paper.
    22. Web site: Amelia Carolina. Sparavigna. The Word Satellite, Its Origin From Etruscan And Its Translation Into Greek. philica.com. 3 January 2018. 29 January 2016.
    23. Bonfante, G. "Etruscan Word in Latin" Word 36.3. 1985. p. 207
    24. Whatmough, M. Studies in Etruscan loanwords in Latin PhD thesis, University College London. 2017. p.251. https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10121058/1/Studies_in_the_Etruscan_loanwo.pdf
    25. E.g. Anna Kłosowska, The Etymology of 'Slave, in Disturbing Times: Medieval Pasts, Reimagined Futures, ed. by Catherine E. Karkov, Anna Kłosowska and Vincent W.J. van Gerven Oei (Earth, Milky Way: punctum, 2020), pp. 151-214 (p. 161).
    26. Thomas Wiedemann, review of H. Rix, Die Termini der Unfreiheit in den Sprachen Alt-Italiens, Forschungen zur antiken Sklaverei, 25 (Stuttgart: Steiner, 1994), in The Classical Review, 48.1 (April 1998), 227-28 (citing Rix pp. 86ff.).
    27. Pisani, V. "Ancora spurius" Paideia 36.62 (1981).
    28. Whatmough, M. Studies in Etruscan loanwords in Latin PhD thesis, University College London. 2017. p.126. https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10121058/1/Studies_in_the_Etruscan_loanwo.pdf
    29. Web site: triumph Etymology, origin and meaning of triumph by etymonline . 2022-03-04 . www.etymonline.com . en.
    30. Web site: Viburnum . 10 March 2024 .

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