Laudator Temporis Acti

Robert Graves (1895-1985), The White Goddess: A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth, 4th ed. (1997; rpt. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013), p. 53 (discussing the Sumerian goddess Belili):

The Slavonic word beli meaning 'white' and the Latin bellus meaning 'beautiful' are also ultimately connected with her name.

Latin bellus has nothing whatsoever to do with Belili. It's a diminutive related to bonus. See Alfred Ernout and Alfred Meillet, Dictionnaire Étymologique de la Langue Latine. Histoire des Mots, 4th ed. (Paris: Klincksieck, 2001), p. 73:

De bonus existe un diminutif familier, employé à toutes les époques: bellus, de *dwenolos, dont la parenté avec bonus avait déjà été reconnue par Priscien, GLK II 80, 7.

---

Dear Michael Gilleland,

It may interest you to know that Max Vasmer (Russisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg, 1950-58) provides the following non-Slavic Indo-European cognates for the Russian белый: Sanskrit bhālam "radiance", bhāti "shine", Greek πεφήσεται (from φάινω from *φάνɩω), πέφη, ἐφάνη, Lithuanian bolúoti "whiten", Latvian bãls "pale", Lithuanian balas "white", Greek φαλός, λευκός, φάλιος, Albanian ballë "forehead, brow", Old Icelandic bál "fire" (Этимологический Словарь Русского Языка, перевод с немецкого и дополнения О. Н. Трубачева, Издательство АЗБУКА, Санкт-Петербург, 1996, том I, стр. 149).

Yours sincerely,

Alistair Ian Blyth

Labels: etymology