LL-L 'Etymology' 2007.01.30 (03) [E/LS]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 30 January 2007 - Volume 03

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From: Luc Hellinckx <luc.hellinckx at gmail.com>
Subject: Etymology

Beste Jonny,

You wrote:

 Door is eyn Idee in miin "Hoevt": in Düütsch hebbt wi G: 'wider', E:
'against', un dat is man mit eyn Boukstoov' verscheyden van G: 'wieder',
meaning E: 'again'. Eyn oule, intersante Verwandschopp, wa'?

Dit Wourd givvt' man vandoog wat meyhr in 't Houghdüütsche as in
Neddersassisch: 'widerspenstig', 'widerborstig' 'widerlich'...- all of them
meaning something like'coming from the front; frontal whithout one's will'.
Eyn G. 'Widder' is 'n Buck, eyn Schoop or eyn Teeg, mit Hoyrn an siin' Kopp,
und doormit kann hey Dii greesig 'wider' Diin Mors stoyten...

So- _einwiddern_  meynt jo woll opp Ingelsch 'to make someone (sensitive)
against something', and my one-pence-worth conjecture is to find the roots
at this point.

I think you're on the right track there. Your remark about "wider" (G) (~
"with" (E)) triggered my mind and made me think of a certain Brabantish
expression:

"iemand in zijn weer zetten"

transliterated into German this becomes: "jemanden in sein wider setzen",
and it means:

to provoke, to goad, to instigate somebody...jemanden ansporn, aufhetzen

German "wider" ~ older Dutch "weder" > newer Dutch "weer".

Note that the structure of _einwiddern_ matches "iemand IN zijn weer
zetten", since _ein_ corresponds with _in_. There's also formal similarity
with German verbs like "anwidern" and "erwidern".
So yes, I think "wider" is the key.

It seems the Dutch word "weer" is a noun though (_zijn_ weer), and that's
why the word "weer", ~ "Wehr" (G) (defense) briefly came into view (in order
to explain the Brabantish expression). Not for long however, since the
latter "weer" is pronounced "wèèr", whereas the former one has a sharp e.

a és altaë in de wèèr ~ hij is altijd in de weer (D): he's always up and
about (E)

The "Widder"-buck is linguistically another matter I'm afraid...even though
his behaviour tends to remind me of the "Wehr-macht" ;-) .

Kind greetings,

Luc Hellinckx
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