Thursday, March 12, 2015

 

Gravesian Etymologies: Bellus

Robert Graves (1895-1985), The White Goddess: A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth, 4th ed. (1997; rpt. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013), p. 53 (discussing the Sumerian goddess Belili):
The Slavonic word beli meaning 'white' and the Latin bellus meaning 'beautiful' are also ultimately connected with her name.
Latin bellus has nothing whatsoever to do with Belili. It's a diminutive related to bonus. See Alfred Ernout and Alfred Meillet, Dictionnaire Étymologique de la Langue Latine. Histoire des Mots, 4th ed. (Paris: Klincksieck, 2001), p. 73:
De bonus existe un diminutif familier, employé à toutes les époques: bellus, de *dwenolos, dont la parenté avec bonus avait déjà été reconnue par Priscien, GLK II 80, 7.


Dear Michael Gilleland,

It may interest you to know that Max Vasmer (Russisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg, 1950-58) provides the following non-Slavic Indo-European cognates for the Russian белый: Sanskrit bhālam "radiance", bhāti "shine", Greek πεφήσεται (from φάινω from *φάνɩω), πέφη, ἐφάνη, Lithuanian bolúoti "whiten", Latvian bãls "pale", Lithuanian balas "white", Greek φαλός, λευκός, φάλιος, Albanian ballë "forehead, brow", Old Icelandic bál "fire" (Этимологический Словарь Русского Языка, перевод с немецкого и дополнения О. Н. Трубачева, Издательство АЗБУКА, Санкт-Петербург, 1996, том I, стр. 149).

Yours sincerely,

Alistair Ian Blyth

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