[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Germs vs Germans

[Günther Böhm]

Earl.Schultz schrieb:

>I thought I'd share this expanation for the roots of the words "germ" and
>"german".  No idea if there is any truth to this.
>Earl Schultz
>
>The Word Detective
>By Evan Morris
>Copyright C 2006 by Evan Morris
>For Release:  Wednesday, October 25, 2006
>
>
>Dear Word Detective:  I am an exchange student, living in the US right
>now.  I'm from Germany, and when I felt sick today, my host brother and
>I wondered whether there is a connection between "German" and "germs."
>I know that the name "Germany" and all its other forms are very old and
>go back to Latin "Germania" or something.  But does "germ" come from
>there?  Are all German people "germian"? -- Katharina Holst.
>
>
>If by "germian" you mean "germy" in the sense of "carrying germs" or
>"infested with dangerous microbial organisms," good heavens, no.  You
>must be thinking of spinach.  From what I've heard, Germany is one of
>the cleanest countries on earth, and most of the people of German
>descent I've known have been fastidiously neat and clean.  Then again,
>I'm not sure that the current American craze for turning our homes (and
>hands) into germ-free zones with antimicrobial agents is such a good
>idea.  The germs that eventually evolve to survive that stuff are going
>to be very hardy and in a very bad mood.  I'd rather have the sniffles
>right now than face billions of tiny little ticked-off Rottweilers in a
>few years.
>
>The root of "German" and "Germany" is the Latin "Germanus," which was
>first (as far as we know) used in print by Julius Caesar for the peoples
>of central and northern Europe in his accounts of his conquests in the
>area.  The root of "Germanus" is unknown, but it does not appear to have
>come from any Germanic language.  One theory suggests that the word
>"German" was actually derived from a word in one of the languages of the
>neighboring Gauls, perhaps related to either the Old Irish "gair"
>("neighbor") or "gairim" ("to shout").
>
>The root of "germ," on the other hand, is a different Latin word,
>"germen," meaning the sprout or bud of a plant, which also gave us
>"germinate."  "Germ" first appeared in English in the 17th century with
>the sense of "sprout" or "seed."  A related Latin root, "germanus"
>("akin" or "genuine") gave us the modern English "germane," in which the
>sense of "closely connected" was developed into its current meaning of
>"relevant."  Interestingly, the original form of "germane" in English
>was "german" (small "g") which survives only in the fairly obscure forms
>"brother-german" and "sister-german," meaning "full sibling."
>
>In any case, "germs" were good and positive things in English (a sense
>still found in "a germ of an idea" and "wheat germ") until the 19th
>century, when the "germ theory of disease" took hold, leading to
>germicides, antibiotics and, recently, mass fear of shopping-cart handles.
>

Hello Earl,
the Germans were first mentioned about 80 BC by the Greek philosopher 
and historian Poseidonios of Rhodos [of Apameia] in his 30th volume. 
Caesar used this word some 20 years later when he described his battles 
against the Sueves under king Ariovist. So the word didn't read GERMANUS 
resp. GERMANI but γερμανοι which was pronounced K[e]RMÂNÎ (A and I 
stressed). This word apparently consists of the syllables KeR and MÂN 
which were used in most of the Indoeuropean languages.

    KeR = great, strong
    MÂN [Latin manere] = to settle, to stay.

This term is still in use for KuRMÂNCÎ (the main Kurdish dialect) which 
apparently has the same etymological roots.

Guenther