mīn-

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Type:	lexical
Meaning:	'mild, gentle'
Language:	Celtic
Phonemic analysis:	/mīn/-
From PIE:	*miH-ni- 'ripe, soft'
From Proto-Celtic:	*mīni- 'soft, mild'
Attestation:	aśmina, minui, minuku

Commentary

Attested in Continental Celtic personal names, mostly as base in simple names (e.g. min(n)ius, -a, minna, minicius, minuso, minusilla), but also as second element with preverbs (e.g. adminius, cominius, uiminius). See AcS II: 595–598, KGP: 243, Lochner von Hüttenbach 1989: 59, DLG: 227 f., Stüber 2005: 83 f., Delamarre 2007: 227, Stüber et al. 2009: 265.

Connected with the OIr. i-stem mín 'soft, gentle' (LEIA: M-53) from the PIE root *mei̯H- 'ripen' (LIV²: 428, Zair 2012: 119 f.), which is continued in numerous words for 'sweet, soft' with various suffixes in IE languages, including the o-stem *mei̯H-no- > PC *mēno- in MW mwyn 'mild, gentle', OCorn. muin gl. gracilis etc. and the Gaulish name element mēno- (e.g. sumena, menos, etc., see DLG: 227 f., Zair 2012: 232, 247). Given the numerous names in minu- (beside two of the Cisalpine Celtic attestations e.g. CIL XIII 2744 minucia, 2760 minuonis, 4475 minuris, and various potter's names, see Delamarre 2007: 134), a u-stem variant appears to have existed in Gaulish.

Corinna Salomon

Bibliography

AcS	Alfred Holder, Alt-celtischer Sprachschatz, Leipzig: Teubner 1896–1907.
CIL	Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. (17 volumes, various supplements)
Delamarre 2007	Xavier Delamarre, Noms de personnes celtiques dans l'épigraphie classique. Nomina Celtica Antiqua Selecta Inscriptionum, Paris: Errance 2007.
DLG	Xavier Delamarre, Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise. Une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental, 2nd, revised edition, Paris: Errance 2003.