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).

Corinna Salomon

Bibliography

AcS Alfred Holder, Alt-celtischer Sprachschatz, Leipzig: Teubner 1896–1907.
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.