LL-L "Etymology" 2007.05.22 (03) [E/German]

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L O W L A N D S - L  -  22 May 2007 - Volume 03

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From: Jonny Meibohm <altkehdinger at freenet.de>
Subject: LL-L "Review" 2007.05.20 (06) [E]

Beste Ron,

in your interesting posting regarding Middle Low Saxon in the Reformation
era you wrote:

>  *Letterye* refers to casting letters for divination, perhaps runic
letters on wood or bone.

I had never read this word before but I didn't feel comfortable with the
connection to 'letter' (which derives from Lat. 'litterae') in a
suspiciously old heathen custom. It absurdly reminded me more at 'lottery'.

Just taking a look at *Harper's* *Online Ethym. Dictionary* I find:

*quote:*

 lottery <http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=lottery> 1567,
"arrangement for a distribution of prizes by chance," from It.
lotteria,from same root as
O.E. hlot (see lot <http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=lot>).

 *lot* <http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=lot> O.E. *hlot* "object
(anything from dice to straw, but often a chip of wood with a name inscribed
on it) used to determine someone's share," also "what falls to a person by
lot," from P.Gmc. **khlutom* (cf. O.N. *hlutr* "lot, share," O.H.G.
*hluz*"share of land
*," O.E. hleotan "to cast lots, to foretell"),* of unknown origin. The
object was placed with others in a receptacle, which was shaken, the winner
being the one that fell out first. Hence, to *cast lots.* In some cases the
lots were drawn by hand. The word was adopted from Gmc. into the Romanic
languages (cf. *lottery, lotto*). Meaning "choice resulting from the lasting
of lots" first attested c.1205. Sense of "plot of land" is first recorded
1633 (distribution of the best property in new settlements often determined
by casting lot), that of "group, collection" is 1725, from notion of auction
lots. The generalized sense of "great many" is first attested in 1812. To *cast
(one's) lot with* another is to agree to share winnings.
*unquote*

*KOEBLER* in his *Old Saxon Dictionary* says:

*quote:*

*hlio-t-an** 2, as., st. V. (2b): nhd. davontragen, aufnehmen; ne. acquire
(V.),

receive (V.); Hw.: s. hlôt*; vgl. ahd. liozan* (st. V. 2b); Q.: H (830); E.:
germ.

*hleutan, st. V., *losen, erlosen*, erlangen; s. idg. *klÐu-, *sklÐu-,
*kleu-?, *skleu-?,

*unquote*
Couldn't that be another passable bridge to *'letterye'* ?

Allerbest!

Jonny Meibohm

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Etymology

Thanks a lot, Jonny!

>Couldn't that be another passable bridge to *'letterye'* ?

Sounds like a good idea, but I doubt it bears water.

"Letter" was a very well established word, no longer perceived as foreign,
by the Middle Saxon stage. I hardly think people would have confused *
lotterye with letterye.

Throughout Eurasia and Africa, people have beeing telling fortunes and
seeking spiritual guidance by means of various divining (oracle
consultation) practices.  Aside from "channeling" through oracle trance,
predominant among these are the practices of reading the entrails of
slaughtered animals and of casting stones, shards, pieces of bone or wood
and to read their "messages" from the formations into which they fall.*  At
least in its more advanced forms, the latter practice involves symbols, be
they pictures, glyphs or letter or whatever. Even if letter wasn't part of
the original name for this in Saxon, the practice could have been renamed by
that time.

* In China, the predominant practice was to scratch glyphs in certain
formations into animal bones( or tortois shells and then to apply a red-hot
pointed piece of metal to a certain point on the surface. The cracks that
formed were then read as oracle messages, namely the directions in which the
cracks ran from glyph to glyph and whether a glyph was or was not involved.
These predominantly pictographic glyps are the earliest known ancestors of
the Chinese script, the so-called Oracle Bone Script (甲骨文 "shell bone
writing"). We can trace this back to the Shang (商) or Yi (殷) dynasty (ca.
1600-1446 BCE), but it may be older than that. There are indications that
this practice was the catalyst of the development of the Chinese writing
system.  I think it's safe to say that it is a variant of the casting
techniques mentioned above. The fundamental premise is that non-human powers
can be tapped into for guidance.

In part I'm insisting on this because the author of the book interprets it
like that too. (He calls it Buchstabenwerfen, "letter casting," if I
remember correctly.)  So it doesn't look as though we're talking about
gambling.  Because of the context in which it is mentioned it's more likely
to be on a level with idol worship or worship of and communication with
pagan divinities. "Letter casting" would fall into the latter category, at
least according to the views of the time.

Thanks again, Jonny!
Reinhard/Ron
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