THE COLOUR WHITE

 

Belenos

In Proto-Germanic and Proto-Indo-European (PIE) there were a number of different words for the color white, most stemming from words which meant “to shine”. Modern Catalonian “blanc” actually comes from Proto-Germanic *blankaz (Modern English “blank”) likely via the Goths.  *Blaikaz eventually became Modern English “bleach” (think: I bleached my hair).  

The word “white” on the other hand stems from Proto-Germanic *hwītaz and has a more inconclusive origin from PIE, perhaps only sharing cognates with the Slavic languages. Interestingly, this word could also meaning “beautiful”, for instance, we find this in the following passage of the Poetic Edda in Old Norse: “Þá kvað þat Heimdallr, hvítastr ása”, in English: “Then Heimdall spake, whitest of the gods.”  We see a similar theme presented in the Proto-Germanic word *fagraz and it’s descendants. 

However, one PIE word of interest meaning white was *albʰós. This word is the root of the Modern English “albino”, ultimately from Latin albus (white).  This root also existed in Proto-Germanic as a direct descendant of PIE *albʰós as *albiz.  However, unlike other branches, this word took on a slightly different meaning, ultimately becoming the Modern English “elf” or Old Norse “alfar”. It is certainly curious that this class of deity took in this name in the Germanic branch, perhaps because our ancestors saw them as shining beings with pale complexions.  

We can also see something similar in the Celtic branches of language, taking on the Proto-Celtic *albiyū. This word is ultimately the source of the mountain range Alps, as well as various ethnonyms such as the Hispano-Celtic Albiones peoples, the Old Irish Albu (Scotland), and also whence the Modern English Albany.

Hopefully this post provides a little insight into how linguistics can be very useful to reconstructionist pagans. The shifting meanings of words provide us insights into how our ancestors saw the world and themselves. We can track these changes in context and connotation, for instance, the change of the word white to mean a class of deities, in order to get a better understanding of what the Elves or Alfar were, in this example.