Thread:User talk:CodeCat/Origin of the phrase Sica

Despite having an evidence for the phrase in Dictionnaire des Antiquités Grecques et Romaines, tome 4, volume 2 (R–S), Paris, 1926, p. 1300, s.v. sica, the name Sica comes from Proto-Indo-European root sek-, meaning "to cut", "to section", certain members keep reverting it to a non-existing "Proto-Albanian" language that should cognate with the "Illyrian". Proto-Albanian is not attested and neither is "Illyrian language". Proposing it to be an Albanian phrase is out of question.

Sica - "First mentioned in Ennius (Annals, 5.540)"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sica

No written form of Illyrian or Proto-Albanian was ever attested by any historian or a linguist, whatsoever. As such they can't be used as valid sources for the sake of personal agenda by Albanian nationalists.

The phrase "Sica" refers to a sword, and the phrase "Seci" is commonly used in Slavic languages to define a cutting process of any kind. For an example, the phrase "Sekira" or "Sikira" are few among them with a distinctive root "SEK" which cognates to that of "SIK"(SIC).

"Woodard 2008, p. 6: "While the Illyrians are a well-documented people of antiquity, not a single verifiable inscription has survived written in the Illyrian language."

"Alb. thika 'knife', Old Ir. cath "wise", Lat. cōs, (gen. cōtis) "whetstone", catus "sharp, acute", Eng. hone, Arm. sur "sharp", srem "to sharpen", Avest. saēni "pot", sal "slab, anvil", Skt. śitá "sharp"; borrowed into Lat. sicca "dagger", Lat. sicarii "assassins", Rus. siečiénije "cut, section; cross-section", siečj, rassiekatj "to whip, flog; to cut, shred, split, sever""