---- guto rhys <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>What is the word 'saith'? The only Celtic derived form in Welsh in GPC is the numeral seven.
>Aha, Ekwall, now I see. He's quoting from Pughe's rather imaginative dictionary. I know of no evidence for a word 'saith' meaning 'cauldron' in Welsh - I would guess that this was one of Pughe's numerous inventions.
I did some searching of the literature on saith.
1707 Edward Lhuyd, Archaeologia Britannica, Volume 1 p. 106 sub 'olla':
A pot. C(ornish) Zeith, † seith
1790 William Pryce, Archaeologia Cornu-Britannica (not paginated):
†SEITH, a pot. Hod. Zeath
and post-Pughe
1859 E. Norris, The ancient Cornish drama (under 'Cornish Vocabulary') vol 2 p. 419:
SEIT, 885, 10a. 'olla', a pot. [saith W.] Recent form zeath. [apparently following Lhuyd]
1887 Fred. W. P Jago, An English-Cornish Dictionary p. 123:
POT or CROCK. Crochan, crochadn, seth, zeth, seith. B. ; zeath, seit, W.
Seems to be a Cornish conspiracy.
>Ekwall's work is in dire need of an overhaul. One problem is that EPN and ERN are one of the main sources for modern works such as EPN Cambridge & Oxford, so the thinking of a century ago is reiterated and sanctioned, even when as here the view is rather 'dicey'. <
For those of you who did not follow the link I provided: http://digilander.libero.it/toponomastica/latium.html#carventum
"Setia
Place: Sezze, province Latina, region Lazio, Italy
Name: Setia (Ptol., Plin., Liv.)
Etymology: A stem *set- is widely diffused in toponymy. The name has exact counterparts in Setia (Baetica), Setia (Tarraconensis). With different suffixes we have Setovia (Germania), Seterrae (Tarraconensis), etc. An Illyrian Setovia has been explained by Duridanov from a *seit-oua, thus from an IE root *seit-. This is not included in Pokorny's dictionary (some Baltic cognate appellatives meaning 'a deep place in the river, pool' are under the root *sei-t- 'to let fall'), but probably is an extension of the huge family *sei-/si- somehow related to waters. This probably is the Pokorny's *sei- 'to be damp, to drip'. The feature *ei>e found in Setia is typically Eastern Italic (Volscan). "
I don't believe that pot-holes in the Mersey are necessarily the source of the name, but those that geologists call "kettle-holes" - the source of many of the meres common to the region.
Tom Ikins
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