<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">L O W L A N D S - L - 31 January 2008 - Volume 01</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">=========================================================================</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">From: Glenn Simpson <<a href="mailto:westwylam@yahoo.co.uk">westwylam@yahoo.co.uk</a>> </span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Subject: LL-L "Etymology" [E/N]</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">O' yi alreet theor Rurn bonny laird!</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">You may be right re 'codger'. 'Cadge' is used in</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Northumberland meaning to 'beg'.</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Northumbrian has this tradition of 'mangling' words. A</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">couple of possible examples jump to mind: 'beil' or</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">'beal', which means cry or whinge, which I suspect is</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">the Northumbrian version of the middle or old English</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">'bale' to cry. And possibly a better example is</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">'bezzalar' to be 'greedy' - is it a mutation of</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">'embezzle'? Also, 'hinny' for 'honey' (In Scots =</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">'hen'?).</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Keep a-howld.</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Glenn</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<div style="margin-left: 40px; color: rgb(0, 0, 153); font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">From: R. F. Hahn <<a href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com">sassisch@yahoo.com</a>><br>Subject: Etymology<br><br>Wot cheor, Glenn!<br>
<br>Canny te heor frem ye agyen, marra, an te knaa ye're<br>still wiv us an keekin in. Weor hev ye beon? Ye areet?<br><br>Now that you mentioned the use of "gadgie" in the<br>sense of "old man," I started wondering about "(old)<br>
codger." Apparently, the etymology of this isn't<br>totally certain, according to the Oxford English<br>Dictionary. It may be a dialectical variant of<br>"cadger," a "carrier," an itinerant dealer that<br>
travels with horse and cart, apparently from "to<br>cadge," which some believe to be related to "to<br>catch." But "codger" may also come from a different<br>source, having the meaning "testy, crusty old fellow."<br>
However, in some earlier literature it refers to<br>"pedlar," "tramp" or "beggar" as well, so there may at<br>least be some convergence with "cadger" at least.<br>Could "gadgie" have fed into it as well?<br>
<br>And then there is "geezer" (~ "geeser" ~ "guyser") for<br>a man (nowadays usually an old man), which is believed<br>to be related to "guiser," namely a mummer or<br>masquerader. What might the semantic significance of<br>
this be? A scary-looking guy? A fright? Its earliest<br>appearance in writing in the sense of "mummer" is in<br>15th-century Scots: Item, in Lannerik, to dansaris and<br>gysaris, xxxvis (1488).<br>As for the word group "widow," I used to assume that<br>
it can still be analyzed as a compound, in part<br>because in Low Saxon we say Wittfro ~ Wittfru ~ Wetfro<br>~ Wetfru etc., thus wit-woman. (Middle Saxon still had<br>weduwe and wedewe, though.) However, this appears to<br>
be a very old word in toto. Sanskrit already has<br>विधव&</div><div style="margin-left: 40px; color: rgb(0, 0, 153); font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" id="1f72" class="ArwC7c ckChnd">
#2366; vidhavจก for<br>"widow'! Sanskrit विध् vidh<br>means 'lacking' or 'destitute', thus 'bereft', which<br>is related to Latin dจฉvidere 'divide' and viduus<br>
'void', 'bereft', 'widowed' (fem. vidua). And then<br>there are Old Prussian (Baltic) widdewu, Old Slavonic<br>*งำง๎งีงเงำงั vĭdova (> Russian งำงีงเงำงั<br>vdova), Welsh (Celtic) gweddw, Cornish (Celtic)<br>
guedeu, Old Irish (Celtic) fedb, all for 'widow'. So<br>you can't etymologize this word within Germanic,<br>because it's older than the group.<br><br>I assume that weew is a contraction of *wedewe.<br><br>
Regards,<br>Reinhard/Ron<br></div><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">