LL-L "Etymology" 2007.03.29 (01) [E]

[Lowlands-L List]

L O W L A N D S - L - 29 March 2007 - Volume 01

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From: Marcel Bas <roepstem at hotmail.com>
Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2007.03.28 (06) [E]

Reinhard:

 Sheer genius!  Thanks.

*cough-cough*, it's lonely in the *rīk *of geniuses.

>I found that old wīk sometimes appears in the sense of '(town's) quarter'
which seems consistent with what you say.

>Bear in mind also that German Weiche means '(railroad) switch'.  So there's
the idea of "retreating" > "diverting".
As you can see in your list of cognates, the sense of "diverting" and
"retreating" that wīk
has, *seem to* *be* a Germanic innovation. Latin (vicus), Greek (oikos) and
Baltoslavic (visi/viesas). But I have found a Greek cognate _eíko_, which
means "to retreat, pull back". And in Latvian _vikt_ "to bend yourself", and
Sanskrit _vijate_  "to pull back, run away".

Interesting, that Greek somewhere changed the _oi_ diphthong into _ei_.

Best regards,

Marcel.

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From: Paul Finlow-Bates <wolf_thunder51 at yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2007.03.28 (06) [E]

From: Jonny Meibohm <altkehdinger at freenet.de>
Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2007.03.28 (03) [E/LS]

The Vikings established in the next their famous 'Haithabu', what also could
be connected with '-bay': 'Heathen Bay', today's name 'Heddeby'.

Allerbest

Jonny Meibohm

I'd say the -by in Heddeby is the same element we see in hundreds of
villages in England ending in -by.  The town I live in, Derby is an example
from ON /deoraby/ - "animal town" - probably meaning cattle in this case.
These -by places only occur in the Midlands and North, within the former
Danelaw, an area ceded to the Danes by King Alfred.  Other Danish place
names are -thorpe, -toft and -thwaite. You'll never see any of these in
Southern England.

Paul Finlow-Bates
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