the word "aberats"

arabarra
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the word "aberats"

Postby arabarra » 2010-09-28, 8:33

Hi all,

today I was wondering about the word "aberats" (=rich)... Looks like that the origin is related to ''abere'' (=farm animal), so that ''aberats'' should be someone which owns lots on animals. That would be a nice story, one of this beautiful Basque words which keeps in it echoes of the prehistoric past (haitzur, haizto, haizkora ... perhaps horma and gela?). The thing is that I don't see what the suffix -ats coud be, or where could it stem from. :hmm:

Some Basque aficionado has any idea?

cheers,
arabarra

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Re: the word "aberats"

Postby Lex1988Spain » 2011-08-13, 11:28

The word "aberats" comes from "abere" which means "animal" or also "estate". Traditionally, a rich person was the one who had lots of animals in his farm.

From then on, many Basque surnames start with "aberats". Eg: Aberastain, Aberastegui, Aberastuy etc.

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Re: the word "aberats"

Postby sa wulfs » 2011-08-15, 2:07

Interesting. In Old English, "feoh" meant "cattle", but also "riches, wealth" and "money". In modern English, it survives as "fee". In Spanish we still have the adjective "pecuniario" ("pecuniary, financial") from Latin "pecus" ("head of cattle"). Now I'd like to know if Finnish, Turkish or Arabic have a similar thing. Gods I love etymology.
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Re: the word "aberats"

Postby Chekhov » 2011-08-15, 3:46

Nope, in Arabic "wealth" is مالي mālī and I'm not aware it comes from anything like that.

Maybe it does in some weird dialect, I'm not sure.

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arabarra
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Re: the word "aberats"

Postby arabarra » 2011-08-17, 23:03

Lex, what I was wondering about was the suffix: "-ats". I know it is tempting to assume that "aberats" comes form "abere" (and the story sums up nicely), but I do not recogize the suffix -ats in any other word. There are a few words ending in -ats, (kirats, mahats,... ) but I do not see how those endings could relate to aberats :hmm:

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Re: the word "aberats"

Postby Lex1988Spain » 2011-08-28, 19:42

arabarra wrote:Lex, what I was wondering about was the suffix: "-ats". I know it is tempting to assume that "aberats" comes form "abere" (and the story sums up nicely), but I do not recogize the suffix -ats in any other word. There are a few words ending in -ats, (kirats, mahats,... ) but I do not see how those endings could relate to aberats :hmm:


I haven't noticed it. I'm trying to think about more words ending in -ats but...nothing. And those that you said, aren't related to "aberats". There are more words ending in -atz, like "baratz" which is related, somehow, to "abere", which is related to "aberats". Sorry i can't help you more with this :?

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Re: the word "aberats"

Postby Aleco » 2011-10-13, 22:55

Sorry for crashing the party (extremely late), but what you said is very interesting, sa wulfs :) Fe in Norwegian is "cattle," but an archaic meaning is "property and wealth" today only alive in the expression fe og frægd (riches and fame) :) I really find etymology interesting too.
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