LL-L "Etymology" 2008.05.11 (02) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L  - 11 May 2008 - Volume 02
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From: Jorge Potter <jorgepot at gmail.com>
Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2008.05.10 (01) [E]

From: jonny <jonny.meibohm at arcor.de>
> Subject: LL-L "Lexicon" 2008.05.09 (01) [E]
>
> Beste Ron,
>
> you wrote:
>
> > The Standard German name for the flower (one of my favorites) genus *
> Paeonia*, English "peony," is *Pfingstrose* ("Whitsun rose").
> > However, when I grew up, in my part of Northern Germany it was called *
> Bauernrose* ("peasant rose") in German. Clearly, this goes back to > a
> Missingsch substratum which by definition comes with a hefty Low Saxon
> substratum. And, in fact, we call the flower
> *> Buurnroos'* (*buernroos'*) in Low Saxon.
> What do you think about my suspicion that there could have gone
> any labyrinthine and mysterious way from '*Paeonia*' to '*Buur*nroos' via
> Spanish '*peón*', meaning E *~ 'peasant' = *German '*Bauer*'/LS* 'Buur'*? I
> could imagine this having been a miss-translation, caused by the lack of
> knowledge that 'Paeonia' is named after the antique god *Paieon*.
>
>
 Dear Jonny, Ron and all the rest,



All the peony bit has been interesting, but I'd just like to add the
following:



IndoE "pag-" meaning to fasten→Latin "pagus", a  staked out region or
boundary→modern English "peasant" and "pagan".



IndoE "ped-", foot→Latin "pes, pedis," foot→Latin "pedes", a walker or
foot-soldier→Sp. "peón", a walker, infantryman or day-laborer. But it can't
be used in the latter sense in Puerto Rico anymore—it would be demeaning.
Although "muchacho" is what is used now, it doesn't correspond to English
"boy". It feels more like our words companion or buddy.



IndoE "bhu-", be, become→Germanic "bu", to dwell→Bauer in High German, but
almost the same in Low Saxon, Dutch, etc.



Of course all those roots have contributed many more words to our modern
languages.



Jorge Potter
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