Questionable etymological reconstruction of Haskell into Latin via the great Wiktionary (Victiōnārium).
- An English patronymic surname derived from the Old Norse given name Áskell.
- A Jewish surname derived from the equivalent of English Ezekiel.
Let’s go with #1, because #2 seems unlikely (even Ezekiel isn’t very common), and finding a cognate would most likely result in a boring Greek/Hebrew borrowing of Ezekiel (all the rage during post-classical periods especially – hellloo Ecclesiastical Latin).
Fun fact: Haskell was never a common given name and it died off in the 1930s: http://www.babynamewizard.com/voyager#prefix=haskell&sw=both&exact=true
From Ásketill, Old Norse áss, óss "god" + ketill "(sacrificial) cauldron, helmet".
Okay, a godly helmet that seems pretty cool ... Gotta split up the work now with áss and ketill, let’s tackle the latter first.
Apparently means “kettle” (that seems kind of obvious now).
… an early loan in Germanic from Latin catillus, diminutive of catīnus …
small bowl, dish, or plate
Okay, this seems like a good match for a Latin cognate, as desired.
Onto the next root!
Refers to a god or one of the Æsir … what about deus? Hmm let’s check some cognates first:
From Proto-Germanic *ansuz (“god”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂énsus, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ens- (“to engender, beget”). Cognate with Old English ōs, Old Saxon ās, Old High German ans-.
Hm, no entries for those PIE terms, no mention of Romance languages, but maybe *ansuz will help us out.
From Proto-Indo-European *h₂émsus, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ems- (“to engender, beget”). Cognate with Avestan 𐬀𐬢𐬵𐬎 (aŋhu, “lord, lifetime”), 𐬀𐬵𐬎𐬭𐬀 (ahura, “godhood”), Sanskrit असु (ásu, “life force, spirit”), असुर (asura, “spirit”), Hittite 𒄩𒀀𒅆 (ḫāši, “procreate, give birth”), Tocharian B ās- (“to produce”) and possibly Old Armenian այս (ays, “evil spirit”).
Still missing some links! Sanskrit is pretty close to Latin, right??
Related to असु (asu-), with several possible etymologies and meanings. In the context of asura conventionally associated with asu- in the sense of "master of the house". This meaning is not further narrowed by its etymology: cf. Avestan 𐬀𐬵𐬎 (ahu, “lord”) and 𐬀𐬵𐬎𐬭𐬀 (ahura, “lord”), Hittite 𒈗 (ḥaššū, “king”), and Latin erus (“lord”). Possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ems- (“to engender, beget”). Compare Old Norse æsir.
Hm, erus ... not technically listed as a cognate here, but still seems reasonably close (in particular, intervocalic s often became r in Latin, and vowels are all relative anyways!).
Meaning “master of the house or family”, which seems about right.
From Proto-Italic *ezos (“master”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁esh₂ós (“master”). Cognate with Hittite 𒅖𒄩𒀀𒀸 (“master”).
A connexion with heres (“heir”) and hirudo (“leech”) has also been proposed by Charlton Lewis and Charles Short, making its stem instead from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰeh₁ro- (“derelict”). Cognates would include Ancient Greek χήρα (khḗra, “widow”), हरति (harati, “to seize”) and हरण (haraṇa, “hand”)
Okay, so the evidence tying it etymologically to áss has long since vaporized, but idk, it seems plausible!
Putting it together we can use the usual word-smashing techniques of Latin, which causes the second declension -us to reduce to a short i, giving ericatillus as a whole. Compared to the source Áskell it seems amazingly close: á changes to e, and s changes to ri (Latin likes to insert epenthetic vowels in places like that, plus VsV > VrV, so this might actually be on the mark), and then a few more vowel changes to fit with Latin’s æsthetic and ending it off as a diminutive with a second-declension (masculine) ending. All looks in order now!
All hail Ericatillus!
P.S. “-le” is also a diminutive in English! https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/-le#Etymology_4
Mercatille, as merulus / merlus / merula share PIE root *h₂ens, and the noun root or vocative may be better suited