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ArchivesRe: What Does This Name Mean?
in reply to a message by Obie
What you're referring to is Aretinus to refer to someone from Aretium 'of or from Aretium' et al
But the formation of Antoninus is different and you have the adjective Antoninianus meaning 'of or belonging to Antonine/Antoninus'. Antoninus/Antonine clearly shares a root with Antonius/Antony but we've no idea what the root originally meant or what part of language it was.
Let's pretend we use in English the Latin practice, for clarity, of the -ia ending for females and -us ending for males. So we have this man who walked around the world and he takes on that feat as a name - Walkerus. Now, erus is a regular Latin ending so does his name mean, as he intended, 'one who walks' or 'like one who walks'?
I think that the incidence of a separate adjective and the timeline of the formation of Antoninus and Antonius makes it very clear that the intention was never to take on a name meaning 'like Anton' but that it was a male formation of a name related to the Anton root. It may have been diminutive (Ann to Annette), it may have been elaboration or enforcer (Calla to Callista), it may have been 2 different formations from single root (Jonathan vs. Matthew vs. Nathaniel) - we'll never know now. But Oxford only goes so far as 'a derivative' so I'm not stepping any further out on that ledge than they are ;o)
Devon
But the formation of Antoninus is different and you have the adjective Antoninianus meaning 'of or belonging to Antonine/Antoninus'. Antoninus/Antonine clearly shares a root with Antonius/Antony but we've no idea what the root originally meant or what part of language it was.
Let's pretend we use in English the Latin practice, for clarity, of the -ia ending for females and -us ending for males. So we have this man who walked around the world and he takes on that feat as a name - Walkerus. Now, erus is a regular Latin ending so does his name mean, as he intended, 'one who walks' or 'like one who walks'?
I think that the incidence of a separate adjective and the timeline of the formation of Antoninus and Antonius makes it very clear that the intention was never to take on a name meaning 'like Anton' but that it was a male formation of a name related to the Anton root. It may have been diminutive (Ann to Annette), it may have been elaboration or enforcer (Calla to Callista), it may have been 2 different formations from single root (Jonathan vs. Matthew vs. Nathaniel) - we'll never know now. But Oxford only goes so far as 'a derivative' so I'm not stepping any further out on that ledge than they are ;o)
Devon
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