How did Latin's "bellum", which I've deduced to mean "war", become "guerra" in Spanish and Italian and "guerre" in French and how did "bella" (which I'm assuming means "wars") come to mean "beautiful" in Spanish and Italian (and "belle" in French)?!
"guerra" is a loan word from the Germanic languages, the English "war" is cognate. Similarly: ward -> guarda
"bellus" is diminutive from bonus (arch. duenos/duonos) -> *benulus -> *benlus (syncope) -> bellus (assim. nl > ll)
"bellum" (arch. duellum) x "bellus" is merely a coincidence
How did Latin's "bellum", which I've deduced to mean "war", become "guerra" in Spanish and Italian and "guerre" in French and how did "bella" (which I'm assuming means "wars") come to mean "beautiful" in Spanish and Italian (and "belle" in French)?!
On the other side bellus chiefly means good in Latin.Perhaps bellus being related to bonus might explain why "elle est bonne" "está buena" means that a woman is attractive. And also explains why "bonita" (a diminuitive of buena / boa ) means beautiful
Is a cognate of "war" still used in German?
It seems that most other Germanic languages use a word that sounds like "krig" to refer to "war".
No, "war" in German today is "Krieg" and as far as I know it's "oorlog" in Dutch, so there seems to be nothing left of "werra" and I can't think of a word sounding alike in my dialect.
How did Latin's "bellum", which I've deduced to mean "war", become "guerra" in Spanish and Italian and "guerre" in French and how did "bella" (which I'm assuming means "wars") come to mean "beautiful" in Spanish and Italian (and "belle" in French)?!
There is no indication that duellum and duo should be etymologically related. You shouldn't take it for granted.
It is much more prudent to take the opposite stance: Don't assume a relation unless you have some means of cross-checking.Right now, I believe to be correct. Prove me wrong, and you have a friend forever.
Yes, thank you. I am aware of that (reproduced here). I find this equally speculative, but it demonstrates nicely that there are equally or even more plausible alternative explanations.Dictionnaire latin français(1934) suggests the etymology with the PIE dāu-, deu- (« destroy, burn »), from which also derives ancient Greek duē(« misery, suffering »).
How did Latin's "bellum", which I've deduced to mean "war", become "guerra" in Spanish and Italian and "guerre" in French and how did "bella" (which I'm assuming means "wars") come to mean "beautiful" in Spanish and Italian (and "belle" in French)?!