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Capsicum skrev:
So if 'ragazzo' in earlier times could mean herder ('Hirt' as
the text says) that would make '*reguardius' an even better
etymon as I would have expectet because of 'guardare'. :) The
only thing what I can not explane is that there is no 'u' in
'ragazzo'. Though '-ius' would be a strange ending. I would
rather expect '-arius' for such words.
Thomas
You have to explain why *rdj comes out as [tts] and not as [rdz]
or [rdZ], and *REGARDIUS would as you say be a unique formation.
For some other attempted etymologies see
<http://www.etimo.it/?term=ragazzo&find=Cerca>
Looking for a possible Germanic derivation I found
the word {rak|on} 'fetter', which would become
_raka_ in Gothic. A *RAKATIUS 'horseboy'
("Pferdeknecht") is IMHO entirely plausible.
Indeed the idea of a Gothic term from horsekeeping
creeping into Italian is rather alluring! We will
never *know* the etymology of what probably was a
slang term, however; there are only various more
or less plausible possibilities.
/BP 8^)>
--
Benct Philip Jonsson -- melroch atte melroch dotte se
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"C'est en vain que nos Josu�s litt�raires crient
� la langue de s'arr�ter; les langues ni le soleil
ne s'arr�tent plus. Le jour o� elles se *fixent*,
c'est qu'elles meurent." (Victor Hugo)