LL-L: "Tymology" LOWLANDS-L, 18.SEP.2000 (02) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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  L O W L A N D S - L * 18.SEP.2000 (02) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Henry Pijffers [hpijffers at home.nl]
Subject: LL-L: "Etymology" LOWLANDS-L, 17.SEP.2000 (06) [E]

Stefan wrote about the use of "bairns":
>
>The word shows up in various Germanic languages, including the
>dialects of Old English ("bearn"), so Scots likely inherited the
>word and did not need to borrow the related form from Norse.

And Ron wrote:
>
>Of course, labial attraction being quite
>strong in most Low Saxon dialects, I would not be surprised to find
>*_börn_.
>
A few days ago I read somewhere that Old-Saxon had "beorn", meaning
"child".
So I think Ron may be right here, that it would be "börn" in modern
Low-Saxon.
Or maybe "böörn"?

grooten,
Henry

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From: Michaël COENCA [michael.coenca at culture.gouv.fr]
Subject: Etymology

Hello people,
I'm new here - but in fact I know the website Lowlands since its early
beginning.
Whatever - let's stick to our topic, as aforementioned ...

Maybe this has been discussed a zillion times but ... I'm a newbie so here
it goes :
I'm kinda keen on etymology.
And I find it real fun to seek the primary meaning of English modern words.

For instance, as I speak Dutch also (actually I'm French), I wondered where

this "tree" came from.
It's "boom" in Dutch and I know from a little German I got it's "baum".
I read in my Webster that "beam" changed its way into its modern meaning
... this is outstanding !!!

 From the sheer material to the manufactured artefact.
Moreover, the abstract sense lead it to "ray" ... Indeed as "who's-that"
said, language is a living body on its own !!

Same thing regarding "beautiful" - hey, that's downright French (ok for the

purists, it's HALF French, because of "-ful").
Where did you "schoon" fall ? "Sheen" is the answer, of course !! A way to
disprove the proverb "all that glitters is not gold" ...

Have you got other words in modern English that lost their first meaning ?

I'm also interested in the "frozen" words, such as "numb", that's the only
survivor of the original verb "to nimb", meaning "to take" (Scandinavian
loanword - Danelaw !).

Cheers to everyone.

----------------------------------------------------------
Michael COENCA - Paris, France

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