LL-L "Etymology" 2007.09.23 (06) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L  -  23 September 2007 - Volume 05
Song Contest: lowlands-l.net/contest/ (- 31 Dec. 2007)
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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Etymology

Hi, Mark!

You asked:

Ron, I like that, but how then do I fit this in with the Afrikaans 'skulp' =
'shell'? Skulpad makes such good sense, now, but what relation has our skulp
'shell' to our skild 'shield' if any?

Well, apparently skulp is not a cognate of "shield" but of "scalp."  English
"scalp" is believed to be an early Scandinavian loan, originally in the
sense of "skull" (perhaps similar to the connection between "cup" and
kop'head'.)  Old Norse has
*skálpr* 'sheath', dialectal Danish skalp 'shell', 'husk', Middle Saxon
schulpe ~ scholpe 'shell', Middle Dutch schelpe, Modern Dutch
schelp'shell'. I wouldn't be surprised, though, if there were earlier
connections
between the above and the "shell" group.

Marcel, you raised another interesting topic:

In Flemish dialects a frog is referred to as "ne puit'. In Standard Dutch
the name for the eelpout (a long fish) is "puitaal", so "frog eel".

I wonder if this 'puit / pout' is related to 'pad / paddock / puddy'.  The
presence of devoiced /t/ and the diphthong make this unlikely.

I don't see any problem with the "t" vs "d" alternation, considering that
West Germanic languages have final devoicing.

English has "pout" for types of fish (Gadidae, cod-types), and English, too,
has "eel-pout."  Middle Dutch has *puut*, *puud*, *puyt* and *puet* for
'frog', and there are indication that these denoted fish (Gadidae) as well.
Dialectal Modern Dutch has puid for 'frog'.  Some Low Saxon dialects have
puutaal for both 'eel-pout' and 'frog', others aalputte for 'eel-pout'.

But wait! There's more!

Apparently the noun "pout" 'protrusion of the lips in petulance of
sulkiness' and its verb form "to pout" are related to the above; cf. Low
Saxon mulen (/muul-/) for the same verb, derived from the noun muul 'mouth',
'maw'.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
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