Norse AEsir and Vedic Asura.

[Madhav Deshpande]

	Clearly the word Asura is originally not a privative form of 
Sura, but derived as asu+ra.  Only in later times, the word Sura was 
derived from the word Asura through reanalysis, when the word Asura 
developed a largely negative meaning.
	In any case, it was my impression that while the word Deva has 
Indo-European cognates, the word Asura/Ahura (iranian) does not go beyond 
the common Indo-Iranian period.
	M. Deshpande

On Thu, 26 Oct 1995, Nicholas Ostler wrote:

> >Is the Norse word for god, AEsir, a cognate of the Vedic, Asura? 
> 
> I believe Aesir to be the plural of Asa (cf another race of Nordic gods:
> Van pl. Vanir).  As such it would have nothing to do with Asura, certainly
> not if that word is really a privative form of Sura.
> 
> Nicholas Ostler
> 
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>