In a message dated 8/31/00 6:12:59 PM GMT Daylight Time, [log in to unmask]
writes:
> "Nin" is the name of an ogam letter, glossed in the Auraicept as
> "uinnius", so DIL gives "name of the ash-tree" as one of its
> meanings. This gloss, repeated in two versions, and a third
> reference* in the Auraicept seem to be the only attestations of
> the word with this meaning, making it actually fairly tenuous.
> McManus in _A Guide to Ogam_ does not accept "nin" as meaninig
> "ash tree".
Curiouser and curiouser! _Nuin_ is certainly 'ash-tree' in Scottish Gaelic (=
_Nion_ in modern Irish). And 'uinnius' looks very like Brit. _Uinniauos_ >
'Finnian', usually etymologised as 'whitey'. I'm not sure I quite, quite see
where this is leading.
Welsh _onnen_ is surely a (Romano-Brit?) Latin loan-word < ornus <*osno-?
Rather than say _nin_ doesn't mean 'ash-tree', why not ask why _nuin/nion_
came to mean 'ash-tree'?
Henry.
visit the Scottish Place-Name Society website at
http://www.st-and.ac.uk/institutes/sassi/spns/index.htm
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