Reconstruction:Proto-Italic/Menezwā

Disputed.

• Perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *menes-wéh₂ (“provided with a mind, intelligent”), from *ménos, from *men-.
• Another hypothesis by Clayton (2024) suggests derivation from Proto-Indo-European *ménwr̥ (“thought”), from the same root above.
• Fortson doubts the connection with the root *men-, arguing that the connections between Minerva and wisdom only emerged at a later period due to the influence of the Greek goddess Athena.
• Alternatively, the linguist Ranko Matasović proposes that the term may derive from Proto-Indo-European *méh₁nos- (“moon”).
• The goddess Minerva has also been interpreted as an Etruscan borrowing

*Menezwā f

1. Minerva

• De Vaan does not reconstruct the term as referring to a goddess at the Proto-Italic level. Instead, de Vaan only reconstructs an adjective of the shape *menezwo-, with the meaning "intelligent, understanding." Regardless, according to the de Vaan, the term still derives from Proto-Indo-European *ménos.
• The linguist Helmut Rix proposes a Proto-Italic sound change of *-sw- to *-rw- on the basis of this term and others such as Latin caterva. However, the Fortson criticizes this theory, arguing that Umbrian mersus reflects Proto-Italic *medezwos not *mederwos, indicating that the sound shift occurred after the Proto-Italic period. Moreover, Fortson notes that, in all other instances, rhotacism was a post-Proto-Italic sound development.
• Based upon the rhotacism of the Osco-Umbrian forms, Carl Darling Buck suggests that these terms—perhaps alongside their respective cults of Minerva—were borrowed from another Italic language, perhaps Latin.

• *Menerwā
• *menezwo-

• Faliscan: 𐌌𐌄𐌍𐌄𐌓𐌖𐌀 (menerua, nom.sg., gen.sg., dat.sg.), 𐌌𐌄𐌍𐌄𐌓𐌖𐌀𐌉 (meneruai, dat.sg.)
• Old Latin: Menerva, Menrva
  • Latin: Minerva
  • → Etruscan: 𐌌𐌄𐌍𐌄𐌓𐌅𐌀 (menerva) (borrowing from Faliscan or Umbrian also possible)
• >? Oscan: 𐌌𐌄𐌍𐌄𐌓𐌄(𐌅𐌀𐌔) (menere(vas), gen.sg.)
• >? Paelignian: minerua (dat.sg.?), mineruai (dat.sg.)

• De Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 380-381
• Benjamin W. Fortson (23 October 2017), “The dialectology of Italic”, in Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics‎^[1], volume 2, De Gruyter Mouton, →DOI, →ISBN, pages 838-839
• “Umbrian ⟨rs⟩ and ⟨rf⟩”, in Indo-European Linguistics‎^[2], volume 9, number 1 (quotation in English; overall work in English), 7 December 2021, →DOI, →ISSN, page 205
• Benjamin W. Fortson IV (2017), “The dialectology of Italic”, in Brian Joseph, Matthias Fritz, Jared Klein, editors, Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics, De Gruyter, pages 838-839
• Clayton, John (2024). Minerva, caterva, & sonorant metathesis: Arguments against a sound law by Rix. East Coast Indo-European Conference, July 2, 2024, Athens, GA.
• Buck, Carl Darling (1904), A Grammar of Oscan and Umbrian: With a Collection of Inscriptions and a Glossary, page 21
• Matasović, Ranko (2018), A Reader in Comparative Indo-European Religion‎^[3], Zagreb