I am forwarding this message to David Howlett (Bubunculus), editor of
the Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British & Irish sources, for his
comments.
Oriens.
--- [log in to unmask] wrote:
> Late latin _nonnus_ "father", later "tutor" or "monk" and _nonna_
> "nun" seem
> to be etymologically related to greek _nannos_ , _nennos_ "uncle".
> Nonnus
> became the medieval latin title for a senior monk, and was a term
> that was
> applied to the Pope before 615 (see Latham, "Revised Latin
> Word-List").
> _Nonnus_ and _nonna_ also lead through to late latin pet names
> *_ninnus_ and
> *_ninna_ "boy" and "girl", whence spanish _nin~o_, _nin~a_ and
> ultimately
> english _ninny_! The dating of the loan of these words to the nordic
> tongues
> would be very interesting to know, if anyone has looked at this, and
> I would
> suspect would follow that of latin _crux_ (for obvious reasons?).
>
> yours aye,
>
> Henry Gough-Cooper.
>
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