I wanted to commend you on your blog about the Hebrew etymolgy of English words. I'm also very interested in languages and linguistics. I suppose it must be a jewish trait. Kol haKavod leja betatzliach!! From Panama,
Rodrigo M. Sacca
Thank you for your comment. Perhaps I will try to talk about the Hebrew origins of Spanish words as well! This actually isn't so far-fetched - many Spanish words come from Arabic.
You should consult a qualified Germanist (which I am not) on this problem. But looking for a Semitic etymology doesn't seem necessary. Amalric (with variants) is indeed a well-attested Germanic name, which was borowed into other European languages. (Mainly Romance tongues, but also into English, where it may have had no native equivalent.)
The earliest attested forms are Gothic, where it forms part of a group of (mainly) royal names, for both men and women: Amal, Amala, Amalabairga, Amalafrid, Amalafrida, Amalaricus, Amalasuintha, Amalberga, and Amali. The Amalungs (offspring of Amal) were the Ostrogothic dynasty which produced Theodoric the Great, and thanks to his court historian Cassiodorus, as summarized by Jordanes, we are relatively well-informed about them. Indeed, in later centuries "Amalung" could replace "Goth" in heroic legends about the Ostrogoths, the "gens Amalorum."
The Visgoths sometimes used the name, too. An Amalaric was one of their kings, 526-531, which may have been under Ostrogothic influence, since their own dynasty was the Balthungs. This is well before the Islamic conquest!
The "Amalric" name, whether descended directly from Gothic (likely in the case of Visigothic Spain and southern France), or in forms belonging to other Germanic languages, was farirly common through the period of the Crusades (at least), and is found as Amalric(us), Amelric, and other variants. Those using the name included Kings of Jerusalem and Cyprus.
A direct survival in Italy from the Gothic invasions is not required; it could have been reintroduced many times over. The name underwent a number of developments when adopted in Romance languages, such as French Amaury. Amerigo would be another.
I am rather dubious about the "work" part of the explanation, which Cecil Adams may have derived from a name dictionary, rarely an authoritative source. It could be correct. The name "Amal(a)ric, and its relatives like Emmerich, is usually glossed as something like "effective" or "powerful" + "king" or "ruler." I suppose "works hard" might be implied. But it hardly seems likely for "Amal-" to have been chosen as a royal eponym if that was the most obvious meaning.
Unfortunately, Amal(a)- by itself seems rather obscure, as outside of names it doesn't seem to form a part of the small extant Gothic vocabulary, which would have been our best evidence. Adams' citation of "Old German" is a fairly vague. Old High German? Old Saxon? Or perhaps really Middle High or Middle Low German (just as some people speak of Chaucer's language as "Old English")?
There is a sort of joke etymology that Amerigo is "really" German Himmel-Reich, Kingdom of Heaven, or (in a now mostly obsolete expression common in World War II), America really is "God's Country."
Ian -
Very interesting comment. Still interested in finding out if amal did mean work, and if so, if it has cognate words in other Indo-European languages, and if it is somehow related to Hebrew.
That's why I suggested a Germanist, who should either know the accepted meaning, and etymology (if there is one) immediately, or have the modern reference works at hand. (And certainly not have to use a Gothic-German bilingual dictionary with a German-English dictionary in hand.)
I have no idea what the reconstructed proto-Germanic form would be, either; or the proto-Indo-European, if there is reason to think there should be one. And either would be a lot more revealing than "Amerigo."
However, it doesn't seem likely that anything well-entrenched in Gothic in the fifth century would have a Semitic origin, a very small amount of Christian-mediated vocabulary adopted during their (early) conversion excepted.
Particularly not the traditions about the names of their kings' heathen ancestors in the Baltic and Eastern Europe. Although sometimes looking a bit garbled, these show no sign even of being subjected to the (often inept) Biblical glosses common later in the Middle Ages.
What about the Arabic meaning of "amal" as hope, also a female name?
According to Stahl, amal meaning hope would be transliterated in Hebrew with an alef, not an ayin, so it's not cognate with any of the Hebrew words I've mentioned here.
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