Disputatio:Flamen

De origine flaminum

My old dictionary says flamen is fleg-men, reflecting Greek phlego 'burn', and the office was that of a burner, one who burns something: 'the person who lights the sacrificial fires'; hence, 'priest (of a particular deity)'. Perhaps later work has been done on the etymology? IacobusAmor 13:16, 8 Octobris 2007 (UTC)

Pokorny (1959) gives the Proto-Indo-European as *bhlagh-men- ‘Zauberpriester’, with the Indo-Iranian brahman/brahmin as cognate.

Watkins (2000) gives it as *bhlād-(s)men- from a root *bhlād- ‘worship’, with brahman/brahmin from a separate root *bhraǵh-men- ‘form, ritual form.’

Sihler (1995) says "L flāmen ‘(high) priest’ might be cognate with Ved. bráhman- n. ‘formulation, prayer’ [...] from PIE *bhlagh(s)men- (PItal. *flaχmen or flaksmen-; the version with an *-s- would not do for the Ved. form). But in the alternative, it has been connected with Go. blotan ‘to worship’ via PIE *bhlād(s)men-. As a matter of principle, neighboring language groups are expected to show important similarities, which would here favor the Gmc. association; but that is balanced in this case by the observation that Ital. and InIr. share many archaic details in their religious and legal lexicons." He states the question is "strictly speaking undecidable."

(Pokorny also mentions *bhlād-(s)men-, blotan, and die zahlreichen Übereinstimmungen in der religiösen Terminologie zwischen dem Italischen und Indoiranischen, so uncertainty seems to have existed for some time. Though I don't seem to have any source relating it to the root of phlego.) —Mucius Tever 01:26, 9 Octobris 2007 (UTC)

One wonders if the old Romans, not knowing of a root *bhlād-, but knowing the root flā-, had a folk-etymology connecting it with flare 'to blow'. They'd have been aware of the synonym flamen 'gale, breeze, blast of air'. IacobusAmor 09:57, 9 Octobris 2007 (UTC)

Dumézil has written a whole book on the subject : Flamen-brahman, Geuthner, 1935 (112p) and defended his view in several of his later books. No etymology seems completely satisfactory or quite sure, so I have nothing to add to what has just been said above. As to the connexion between the group fulgeo/flagro/flamma (with related greek phlego/phlox) and the religious title flamen it will be perhaps the Truth in the next century.Marcus Terentius Bibliophilus 10:23, 17 Octobris 2007 (UTC)