In a message dated 8/31/00 9:40:36 PM GMT Daylight Time, [log in to unmask]
writes:
> Given the multiplicity of names associated with Ninian, I don't
> think one should assume that "Ninian" was a proper name; it well may have
> been a title or descriptive name or a conflation of a proper name and a
> title.
Well, could you run with that a bit? What sort of title might it have been?
How does it relate to apparent cognates like _Ninine_ (Annals of Tigernach
s.a. 621) and the various examples of _Ninn(d)idh_ , which are presumably
'proper names'?
It seems reasonably certain from the 8th/9th century forms (in Bede 'HE',
'Miracula N. Episcopi', Alcuin 'Epistulae') that the saint's name is Nyn+iau
(< hypocoristic _iauos_). The later _Ninian_ (not earlier than Ailred's
Vita?) is most likely from G. *Nineann (as exemplified in the Ringan, Trinian
mutations), or simply a scribal error _n_ for _u_.
(Incidentally, one of Ninian's miracles involves the theft of his staff,
which, reaching Ireland, roots itself and grows into a lofty tree. Ailred
'Vita.N.' c.10. Apparently there is also a miracle involving a cruck-beam in
the Vita S Darerca; this saint's hypocoristic name is Mo-nynne).
>"Finn" and "vinn" mean a lot more than "white." The word may mean
>anything from fair to shining to bright, having connotations of glowing
>inspiration and shining sun and bright fire--just as the name "Candida Casa"
>did.
The primary meaning of Brit. *uindo does seem to have been 'white', as many
Romano-British place-names, and in particular Candida Casa = Whithorn (OE
hwit erne), would suggest.
>"Uinnius" is the legitimate OI word for "ash tree" (later "fuindsend",
>from the oblique forms of the noun, giving modern "fuinseann" and
>"fuinseog"), cognate with Welsh "onnen".
What is the relationship between the loan-words Ir. _uinnear_ W. _onnen_,
Gaulish _onno_ < L. _ornus_, and the _nuin_, _nion_ that have survived in
common speech? Why did _onnen_ survive in Wales but not _uinnear_ in Ireland
(and maybe never reached Scotland)? Might this suggests that in Ireland at
least _uinnius_ was an academic term, not in everyday use?
As far as I know, the Brit. element *_n(ey)n_ in English river-names has not
been explained (Nene, Neen), nor the Breton river-name Ninian.
Henry
visit the Scottish Place-Name Society website at
http://www.st-and.ac.uk/institutes/sassi/spns/index.htm
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