LL-L "Etymology" 2004.09.06 (03) [E]

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From: Ruth & Mark Dreyer <mrdreyer at lantic.net>
Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2004.09.04 (01) [E]

Dear Theo Homan
Subject: LL-L "Etymology"

> > "forlorn hope". "Forlorn" is an E word to which the
> > Du word "verloren" was [blended]
> But isn't this a use of a military term, that got
> widespread in common use, and that the celtic
> missionaries took to the continent?

> The original meaning of hope  = group. The new meaning
> of 'hope' was taken by the celtic missionaries to the
> continent, and pushed out -also there-  the old word
> 'waan, wahn, won' etc. That is to say: these old words
> for 'hope' got a new meaning.

That's a bit early, I think. The use of 'forlorn' & 'verloren' go back to
the common ancestor of both tongues, both originally referring to some
[thing] which is 'lost'. The main part of the English is used in the same
sense in other applications, e.g. 'lovelorn'. On the other hand a [person]
who has lost his way or his location is ( in Nederlands & Afrikaans)
'verdwaald', the main part of the word of which is cognate with the English
'dwelt'. So much for 'forlorn'.

The word 'hoop' served in Maurice of Orange's military terminology for a
unit of undefined size. It is cognate with the English 'heap' which has of
course a different application. A 'verlorene hoop' in the usage of the Dutch
forces of the day simply meant 'suicide squad'. They developed a reluctant
facility with this resource in their wars with Phillip of Spain & the Duke
of Alva. The English, in their episodic support of the Dutch in their
Continental wars, learned the institution from them, but were seldom so
pressed as to give the strategy serious consideration (until Ostend &
Zeebrugge, e.g.. in W.W.II).

English 'hope' as also Dutch 'hoop' (the homophone - sorry, John, of 'hoop'
= 'heap/unit'), needs no analysis, but the Dutch construct 'verlorene hoop'
was adopted into English military usage, in the unique English way with
other people's language, without translating it; merely torturing it a
little to get it round the clumsy English tongue. It is 'folk etymology'
from a largely English background that needs to impart native meaning to the
English term. It is unnecessary. In our army we used the one in English &
the other in Afrikaans.
The English have in the same way had their way with such words as
'Livorno' - 'Leghorn', 'Uitenhage' 'Yoo-tin-hage', 'Ferenzia' - 'Florence',
'Kalk Baai' - 'Cork Bay'.

Yrs,
Mark

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