What’s in a “mir”?

Several Slavic monarchs had the name Kazimir or Casimir.  But what does Casimir mean?

If you make the mistake of seeking answers in Wikipedia, you will learn that the prefix Kazi– means “to ruin” or “destroy” and since the suffix –mir supposedly means “peace” we have a “ruiner of peace”.  While one can appreciate the quandary of new parents facing a crying baby, it still seems cruel for anyone to give that name to a newborn.

In other words, this smacks of BS.

We have the ending –mir in Germanic languages where we are told the suffix refers to “fame”.  And we are told that that suffix means “fame” whether it comes in the flavor of –mir or –mar or –mer.  Once again a lot of flexibility is afforded to the Germanic languages (3 vowel suffixes are all Germanic but only 1 Slavic (which may also be Germanic BTW)).

So what does the name Ariamir mean?  Well, Ario, supposedly means “eagle”.  Except, another explanation is “army” (*harjaz, Heer).  So which is it?

And what happened to the “h”?  We are told that the “h” got dropped by the Romans.  Ok, but Ariomir was his own king in Portugal – did his Germanic parents also drop the “h”?

In any event, what does Ariamir mean then? “eagle famous”? “warrior/army famous”?

Let’s try it from a different angle.

Could the Germanic and Slavic names have a common origin/meaning?

Ario

Ario or Aria may well refer to the Earth/Erde or orać (to plough, obviously, the Earth).  Orać comes from the “Proto-Slavic *orati (which, supposedly, comes from Proto-Indo-European *h₂erh₃-, however that may be pronounced).   The Earth may also refer to “people” (hence the mystical and (now) infamous Aryans) as in gathering the people from the given area (here is that prefix again).  The same may also refer to an army in the sense of a throng so gathered.

Mir

The Slavic mir may mean “peace”.  In Russian it means “world” also.   The peace is established by a ruler, however.  Thus, mir could mean “king”.  This would explain Ariamir as a king of the people (or of the Earth).

Kaz

What does Kazimir mean then?

The prefix kaz may refer to ordering or ruling (kazat), as in na-kaz or roz-kaz, za-kaz.  Thus, you have the “ordering/ruling king/ruler/boss”.

The Proof?

As proof of this theory (or at least of the fact that the alternate theory makes no sense), we can look to the Bull of Gniezno (we had some names from it featured here).  It is a document from 1136 that lists dozens of Polish names.  The full list can be found here.  There are several mirs on the list.  Note that if mir really means “peace” or even “world” the names make little sense:

• Tangomir – presumably Tęgomir – a name also possessed by a duke of the Stodorans in the Xth century and reminiscent of the name Tuga in the legend about the arrival of the Croats.  Tęgi to this day means “strong” – “strong ruler” is a much more probably name than “strong peace” or “strong world” – the latter does not make any sense.
• Vsemir – this has been translated as the “whole world” as in Vesmir.  Except, who names (even a very fat) baby that way?  Vsemir, is much more likely to mean “of all ruler” or “the ruler of all”.
• Nemir – not a king – sorry but there are other career options.  Given how often kings and dukes fell in medieval Europe, this name could well have been a blessing bestowed by the parents.

Likewise, “Vladimir” would not mean the ruler of the world (as ambitious parents might be inclined to name their baby) but rather the ruling king/boss/leader.

This approach is also consistent with viewing these as an adjective + noun pair. All of those are just descriptive of the kind of mir the child is expected to be.  And this includes Ariamir – “Earth/people ruler.”  (as to Ariovist see here).

As to those mirs that serve as a prefix, they just have to be interpreted as “kingly” and you have, for example, a “kingly Suav” (Mirosuav or Miroslav).  Whether Miranta has something to do with Miranda and miraculous we will leave for another time.

We also note that a version of mir appears in Suevic, Gothic, Slavic and even Eastern names (as seen for, example, in the alleged (because the only evidence for their existence are coins) rulers of Balachistan (Yolamira, Bagamira, Hvaramira but also Mirahvara and Miratakhma) who were named the Pāratarājas). Interestingly, the Behistun inscription refers to the Gimirri who were, perhaps, the Cimmerians.

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