<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"> </span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">L O W L A N D S - L - 26 April 2007 - Volume 08</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">=========================================================================</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">From: </span><span id="_user_mrdreyer@lantic.net" style="color: rgb(0, 104, 28); font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Mark Dreyer <<a href="mailto:mrdreyer@lantic.net">mrdreyer@lantic.net
</a>></span><span style="font-weight: normal; font-family: arial,sans-serif;" class="lg"></span><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"> </span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2007.04.24 (05) [A/D/E]
</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Dear Ron:</div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"> </div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Subject: LL-L
"Delectables"</div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Are you serious about the "bee sting" bit?</div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"> </div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Well, yes, but only slightly. I wasn't - amn't happy with that 'sting'
& 'stich' bit. & I want that 'beest-' to have something to do with
cattle, even though I know all our mammalian kind's mothers make it.</div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"> </div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Your dissertation is yummy both in the liteerary & gastronomic sense,
for which thanks. 'Bienenohren', Ha!</div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"> </div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Back for "beestings" ... they ain't no "bee stings," brother. </div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"> </div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Yes? So then why do both the Brits & the Germans say it, 'sting'
& 'stich', & as far as I can see, 'bienen' have nothing whatever to do
with bovines, at least until you come to Ferdinand the Bull.</div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"> </div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">As far as I know, in Low Saxon it's <span style="font-style: italic;">beystmelk</span> (<span style="font-style: italic;">
Beestmelk</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">Beistmelk</span>), <span style="font-style: italic;">beystmilk</span> (<span style="font-style: italic;">Beestmilk</span>), etc. (We tend to associate it
with Eastern Friesland.) The original word is <span style="font-style: italic;">beyst</span>. In German it's <span style="font-style: italic;">Biest(milch)</span>, English "beest," from Old
English <span style="font-style: italic;">béost</span>. Middle and Modern Dutch
has <span style="font-style: italic;">biest</span>, North Frisian <span style="font-style: italic;">bjast </span>and <span style="font-style: italic;">bjüst</span>. </div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"> </div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Aaaah! ---.conceded on all these points, but how then do you distinguish
it from the actual milk, to which the same term ought to be equally
applicable?"</div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"> </div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">The origin appears to be unknown. </div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"> </div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Do you mean to say 'beast', 'beest', 'biest', 'beyst', 'biest', 'bjast',
'bjust', 'beost' & 'bees' & all its cognates in all IE languages are
of unknown origin? At least in this linguistic pool it seems common if not
general. Even the Latin 'bos' seems to be part of the word-hoarde, hey!
See, in our 'T'-dropping we have exalted precedents.</div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"> </div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Oh, you final-t-dropping Afrikaans speakers! ;-)</div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"> </div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Yrs,</div>
<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Mark ;-)<br><br>----------<br><br>From: R. F. Hahn <<a href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">sassisch@yahoo.com
</a>><br>Subject: Etymology<br><br>Mark,<br><br>I guess your "problem" is that you are assuming that there is a connection between the words in question and the group represented by "beast," <span style="font-style: italic;">
Biest</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">beyst</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">biest</span>, etc., namely ' (sort of) animal'. <br><br>The latter comes from Latin <span style="font-style: italic;">
bestia</span> 'animal' (> Old French <span style="font-style: italic;">beste</span> > Old English <span style="font-style: italic;">beast</span>, replacing earlier <span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;">
deór</span></span>).<br><br>Of course, it isn't impossible that there's a very early link between all of the above, also considering the coextistence of German <span style="font-style: italic;">Biest</span> and Latin-derived German
<span style="font-style: italic;">Bestie</span>. But we can't make such an assumption.<br></div><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Reinhard/Ron</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">