[B-Greek] Hellenizing a Latinate name (somewhat off-topic)

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Thu Apr 8 17:18:50 EDT 2004


At 3:32 PM -0400 4/8/04, Kenneth C. Vendler wrote:
>I know this may be on the skirts of what this list is for, so I apologize.
>I know of no place else where this question could be accurately answered,
>so please bear with me :-)
>
>How would the Latinate personal name Desiderius be most properly
>Hellenized? My best idea with my current state of knowledge would produce
>DESIDERIOUS.
>
>Would this be correct as far as accepted conventions for transliterating
>names into Greek go?

As in Desiderius Erasmus?

Just simply DESIDERIOS will do fine--i.e. take the Latin name and convert
it into the Greek second-declension form; this is the way it was done in
antiquity, e.g. PONTIOS PILATOS = Latin PONTIUS PILATUS.

The -OUS would represent a Latin name ending in -US only if that U were a
long U; cf. IOULIANOS = Latin JULIANUS.
-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/



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