Talk:List of figures in Germanic heroic legend, I–O

Similte[edit]

So I've had two thoughts on her name. It might be MHG sî milte ("be generous"), milte being one of the core courtly values. Kaufmann also notes a form Sīmo that is probably from Sigimar, but also occurs in forms such as Sīmilo, Sīmicho, and Sīmit. I'm not sure if this is getting into OR though.--Ermenrich (talk) 12:57, 12 July 2021 (UTC)[reply]

They sound like very reasonable analyses. We are not in a hurry, though. Usually good RS turn up later.--Berig (talk) 15:15, 12 July 2021 (UTC)[reply]

This is the best I've found so far [1]. It connects the first element to "female names beginning with Sim-". It points to Grimm but he doesn't provide an etymology (that I've found)--Ermenrich (talk) 15:39, 12 July 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I guess that some names are simply not treated because, scholars can't find an etymology they feel they can defend. We have to expect that there was some creativity in making up names.--Berig (talk) 16:35, 12 July 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Right. It's also clear that by the MHG period elements like -hild, -lind, -gart, -burg, etc. are just sort of making generic feminine names rather than being used meaningfully. There's an article by I think Hermann Reichert or Wolfgang Haubrichs about when Germanic names stopped being used to create compounds that made sense - it was fairly early.--Ermenrich (talk) 17:01, 12 July 2021 (UTC)[reply]

In Scandinavia, many names stopped making sense in the 8th century.--Berig (talk) 17:06, 12 July 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Ermenrich, if Similte is transparent as sî milte ("be generous") in German, I am not sure that it is reasonable to consider a literal translation of the name as OR or SYNTH. It would hardly be more synth or OR than any other translation done by WP editors. You could just write "Similte, literally 'be-generous'".--Berig (talk) 20:37, 12 July 2021 (UTC)[reply]