A NAMELESS ETYMOLOGY: ANONYMOUS AND ITS PROTO-INDO-EUROPEAN BACKGROUND*

Abstract

SVMMARIVM: De Graeco adjectivo agitur, quod significationem «anonymus» vel «sine nomine
» fert et alternatim νώνυμνος, νώνυμος et ἀνώνυμος scribi solet. Quarum formarum
primam antiquissimam fuisse ostenditur, unde postea varias scripturas νώνυμος et ἀνώνυμος
ortas esse. Postrema autem, in Latinum sermonem illata, eiusdem significationis voces genuit
in plerisque praesentis aetatis linguis usitatas.

ABSTRACT: The present paper investigates the history and prehistory of the Greek adjective
for «nameless; inglorious», which is attested in three different variants. It is shown that the
original variant is represented by the Iliadic form νώνυμνος, which is analyzable as a negative
bahuvrīhi compound. Later, νώνυμνος developed the secondary variants νώνυμος and
ἀνώνυμος – both attested since the Odyssey –, which can be explained through independently
provable analogical processes. The latter form ἀνώνυμος has been borrowed into Latin and
then gave rise to the standard lexemes for «nameless» in most European modern languages.