• rustydrd@sh.itjust.works
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        1 month ago

        The “Visi” in “Visigoths” is already meant to identify them as the western Gothic people, in contrast with the eastern “Ostrogoths” (it doesn’t mean “western” but it was meant to be used like that by Cassiodorus, who invented the term).

        • egrets@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          Between Wiktionary and Etymonline, the suggestion is the word stems from Latin Vesi as a Latinized form of their tribe name, itself coming from PGmc *wesuz “great, excellent”.

          I really hope this is right, because a nation of goths who call themselves “the Good Guys” is hilarious to me.

        • lime!@feddit.nu
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          1 month ago

          i gathered that it wasn’t cassiodorus who started using the term that way but a later writer. he invented the term but just called the ostrogoths “goths”

      • MinnesotaGoddam@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        how about the osteogoths

        In our world, bones equal dollars
        That’s why they’re coming out tonight
        To get their bones from you