LL-L "Etymology" 2008.02.22 (04) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L  - 22 February 2008 - Volume 04
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From: Luc Hellinckx <luc.hellinckx at gmail.com>
Subject: LL-L "Etymology"

Beste Ron,

You wrote:

Words like "hedge," "hag," "hex," etc. are related to this group. Widows and
never married women tended to be marginalized and live in the woods outside
settlements, especially those that practiced pre-Christian religion and
healing arts, hence the connection with "witch" and stories about witches in
woods.


It's quite general, adding "haag" (or the like) to a word, automatically
gives it a downright negative connotation, examples:

"achter de haag naar school gaan" = skipping school
"a hedge-priest" ~ "haegh pape" ~ "haegh munck" = poor, illiterate priest
"hedgeborn" = of low birth
"hedge marriage" = clandestine marriage
"haegh munte" = fake money
"haegh klerck" = poor clerk, discipulus infrequens in scholis
"haagweduw" = unmarried woman with children
"haegh wond" = illegitimate child
"haegh tap" = ramshackle inn
"hagepreek" = sermon in a secret place, not in church
"haeghspel" = play of mediocre quality
"haeghpoorter" = citizen, living outside a walled town, civis paganus

Kind greetings,

Luc Hellinckx

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

Thanks, Luc.

I guess one is tempted to ask what this says about me and my ancestors. But
I happen to know that my paternal grandfather, conceived in Eastern Prussia,
got the surname Hahn by way of adoption in Holstein. So I'm not a Hahn by
blood.

Talking about "illegitimate," I guess that's the underlying meaning of *haag
* and *haegh* in the examples you provided. This may well go with what I
said about ostracized people that lived outside or at the edge of
settlements, marginalized members of society that didn't count, oftentimes
because of their lifestyles and practices that were considered improper and
illegitimate. Or it was simply because they were women without husbands and
without other males heading their households, which in itself used to be
considered improper, an invalid status to have. Throw into this other poor
and impoverished people that had to live at the periphery of a settlement.

As the German folksong begins, one of those that "romanticizes" beggars'
lives:

*Widele, wedele, hinterm Städtele hält der Bettelmann Hochzeit.
Alle die Tiere, die Wedele haben, soll'n zur Hochzeit kommen.
*

My attempt at a translation:

Wiggety-waggy tail, behind the little town the beggar-man's getting married.
All animals that have wiggety-waggy tails are welcome at the wedding.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
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