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Help[Facts] Re: Adria
in reply to a message by Silver
Forget the little and the dark ... ater is Latin for dark, as in dark-coloured, and when inflected, the stem is atr-. This means that most of the time, the letter sequence is atr-.
However, there seems to be no clear link from ater to the Adriatic Sea. For one thing, the modern American pronunciation of -t- is often -d-, eg Katy which can sound like Kady, but not in Latin as far as we know.
In the Homeric poems the usual descriptor for the sea is "wine-dark", which is very beautiful but probably irrelevant here.
As a general rule, don't trust etymologies unless they are clearly documented.
However, there seems to be no clear link from ater to the Adriatic Sea. For one thing, the modern American pronunciation of -t- is often -d-, eg Katy which can sound like Kady, but not in Latin as far as we know.
In the Homeric poems the usual descriptor for the sea is "wine-dark", which is very beautiful but probably irrelevant here.
As a general rule, don't trust etymologies unless they are clearly documented.
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