[Erasmus]

Officials said the resurfaced treasures highlight the importance of a hill so favored by the rich and powerful that its name is at the origin of the words "palace" in English, "palais" in French and "palazzo" in Italian.

And the root-word "Pfalz" in German. A "Pfalzgraf" would be called in English a "Count Palatine," which originally meant a nobleman who had special duties at the palace of the emperor.

The name of the German state of Rheinland-Pfalz recalls the days when a Count Palatine ruled over part of that territory.

[Pharmboy]

Interesting connections. Danke.

[Larry Lucido]

Pfalzgraf

Also a landmark negligence case. My law school in northern Illinois would have a Pfalzgraf party every year around Halloween, to mark that point in the torts class. I'd figured "Pfalzgraf" was some Wisconsin brewery that was sponsoring the party, and was quite disappointed to find out otherwise.

[livius]

Thanks for that linguistic tidbit!