LL-L "Etymology" 2007.06.05 (05) [E/LS]

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L O W L A N D S - L  -  05 June 2007 - Volume 05

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From: Jonny Meibohm <altkehdinger at freenet.de>
Subject: LL-L "History" 2007.06.04 (01) [D/E]

Hi, beste Marcel,

Du schreyvst:

> By the way, isn't Moses reputed to have HAD black cattle with red *specks*
?

Wow- I'd never known this word E:*'speck'** *before, but it's opening my
eyes for some etymological correlations and perhaps disrelations.

Lots of northern German place-names contain '-specken', e.g. 'Speckenbüttel',
'Am Specken' etc., them always situated in the centre of villages, probably
meaning a central place for the market. Could at last have been the legal
forerunner of G: 'Flecken' (basic meaning same as in English 'specken'),
denoting a village or town with a certain right called 'Marktrecht', which
allowed people from the surrounding to sell their goods here.

But: other place-names with the same '-specken' within them denote something
very different. You'll find streets as 'Speckenweg', 'Speckenpatt' or
technical terms as 'Faehrspecken' and this time the 'Specken' probably
originates from LS: 'Speyken', related to 'Spacken', E: 'spoke', G:
'Speiche' as a term for wooden bars which were used to arm a morastic way.

Last but not least we find the words LS/G: 'Speck', E: 'bacon' (which words
LS/G are explained in the 'Herkunftsduden' as being related to any IE
'Hinterbacke'/'buttock', which I don't believe at all) and LS (Eastern
Prussia) 'spicken', E: 'to stitch', G: 'stechen'.

I'm eager to hear your ideas!

BTW: should Moses have been the first breeder of Holstein-Frisian cows ;-)?


Allerbest!

Jonny Meibohm
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