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[edit] = It should be renamed to SVANTEVIT

What is svetovid? The Polabian deity's name was SVANTEVIT(from proto-Slavic: Svętovitъ) and is typical Slavic name like Svętoplkъ, Sĕmovitъ etc) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.88.89.86 (talk) 13:40, 16 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Previous discussion (before December 15, 2007)

Tri god'ne s kleti Turci - actually calls Turks as damned Turks.

A cet'ri s crni Ugri - calls Hungarians black, which means bad.

--Grigoryev 06:20, 12 May 2005 (UTC)

How come the Światowid is incorrect name? Halibutt 14:32, 6 November 2005 (UTC)

It's not an original name of the god, but a wrong 19-th century reconstruction of the name. Boraczek 18:02, 6 November 2005 (UTC)

Any details?? Halibutt 00:20, 8 November 2005 (UTC)

The article explains the wrong etymology. You can also find an explanation in "Mitologia Słowian" by Aleksander Gieysztor. Boraczek 20:11, 8 November 2005 (UTC)

Not really. The article and the book explain the ethymology of the word, but they do not explain why one of the names (in modern times the most widely used, BTW) is wrong. It might've been wrong for the pre-historic Slavs who still used personal names as if they were meaningful, but nowadays... You wouldn't call the word niedźwiedź (bear in Polish) wrong just because, according to historical ethymology, it should be miedźwiedź (literally the one to know where the honey is), would you. Halibutt 20:24, 8 November 2005 (UTC)

Well, in my opinion the article deals with the pagan Slavic religion/mythology, so its aim is to describe what gods were in the Slavic pantheon and how they were called. From this point of view, the name which appeared in the 19th century as a wrong reconstruction seems to be irrelevant. If you don't think the word "incorrect" is inappropriate, please change the wording. However, I think it would be misleading to simply list the name Światowit / Światowid along with other names, as it is not an original name. Boraczek 20:50, 8 November 2005 (UTC)

Svetovid is INCORRECT form too. The only correct are: Svantevith (oryginal written Polabian form) or Svętovit (etymological Slavonic form). Svetovid is incorrect like Światowid... And the ethymology from Svitanije is some kind of folk-ethymology... Svęto-vit has "svęt-" adjective like in many other Slavic names (e.g. Svęto-plk = Russian Svyatopolk, Czech Svatoplk, Polish Świętopełk) that means "sanctus, glorious, magical"... And -VIT is used in many other Slavic names too (for example OldPolish name Siemowit, Witosław etc) and it is definetely NOT -viD (from VIDE:TI "to see") - it is from other word (there are many hipothesis about this, one of them are vit- from vitati "to be, to come, to wel-come [welcome] somewhere, later to welcome somebody" [modern Polish witać "to welcome" somewhere and somebody]. The second hypothesis is that it meant "the lord")

[edit] Spellings of "Svetovid"

I'm having a bit of difficulty with the spellings of this god. The spelling used in this article varies from paragraph to paragraph, making it imply that the text is speaking about a particular spelling of its name, rather than the god in general. --Adamrush (talk) 14:05, 15 December 2007 (UTC)

Proper spelling is controversial. Linguistics studies show that god's name was "Svętovitъ" - written in international Slavic-Etymological ortography (from Svęt- "saint, magical, powerful" and vit- "connected to vitędz 'a hero, victorious one' or from vitati 'to welcome, to be').

In original sources the name is written as "Svanthevit" or similar. Polish "Światowid" is just (wrong) XIXc reconstruction made by Slavic antiquities lovers and is based on Polish words "świat" (world) and "wid-zieć" (to see) because Polabian idol had 4 faces or heads and similar sculpture was found in (modern) Ukraine (so called "Światowid from Zbrucz"). I think the only proper version should be original "Svathevit" (like in sources) or at last etymologists-academic version Svętovit.