--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "dgkilday57" <dgkilday57@...> wrote:
>
> [...]
>
> Returning to <Tiról>, if my accentual concerns are valid, it cannot be
pre-Roman, and a Latinate explanation should be sought. Vulgar Latin *ti:ra:re
'to pull, draw' and *ti:rum 'a pulling, drawing, draught' are reflected in
Italian <tirare> and <tiro>, and in other Romance languages. An adjective, VL
*ti:ra:lis 'pertaining to draught', is very likely. A pass or bridge wide
enough for a pair of draught animals would then be <aditus *ti:ra:lis> or <pons
*ti:ra:lis>. The Castrum Maiense near Meran indicates Roman occupation already
in the 1st cent. CE. I hypothesize that any vehicular traffic in the area had
to go over a pass (or less likely a bridge) which became known as *Ti:ra:lis,
masculine in agreement with <aditus> or <pons>, and which gave its name to the
locality. The medieval castle built nearby would take the same name, by then
Alpine Romance *Tirále. I take this as the source of the 12th-cent. <Tiral(e)>
and <Tyral.> as well as the Middle High German citation <Tiräl>. The official
form <comites Tirolenses> probably originated with a particular dialectal
pronunciation; <Tol(l)> for standard <Tal> is cited from the Eisacktal for
comparison. At any rate this scenario explains the accent of <Tiról>. Italian
<Tirólo> must come from the official German form, not directly from Alpine
Romance.

Cicero (ad Att. 17:13) mentions a bridge called Tirenus (v.l. Tiretius) at
Minturnae, the town on the Liris between Latium and Campania. "Tirenus pons,
qui est Minturnis fortasse in fluvio Liri vel in Maricae paludibus."

> Regarding VL *ti:ra:re, I suspect a connection with the equally obscure Latin
<ti:ro:> 'recruit, novice, tyro', which serves as a cognomen and is
morphologically compatible with Etruscan origin. Possibly an Etr. *ti:r- 'to
pull, draw' produced a noun *ti:ru: 'one who pulls or draws, draught animal',
specifically 'donkey, jackass', and the Latinized <ti:ro:> in military slang
expressed the contempt which experienced soldiers felt toward a recruit. On the
other hand *ti:rum and *ti:ra:re would be developments from the objective sense.

Cicero thrice mentions an assassin named Numisius Tiro in the Philippics, and
<Numisius> is the Latinized form of the Etruscan gentilicium <Numsi>.

DGK