<div style="text-align: center; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">=========================================================================<br>L O W L A N D S - L - 03 April 2008 - Volume 01<br style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">
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=========================================================================<br></div><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">From: </span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="HcCDpe"><span class="EP8xU" style="color: rgb(0, 131, 145);">jonny</span> <span class="lDACoc"><<a href="mailto:jonny.meibohm@arcor.de">jonny.meibohm@arcor.de</a>></span></span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Subject: </span><span class="HcCDpe"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">LL-L "Etymology" 2008.04.01 (08) [E]</span><br><br></span><div><span><font face="Courier New">Beste Ron, beste
Lowlanners,</font></span></div>
<div><span></span> </div>
<div><span><font face="Courier New">today we've got the
3rd of April everywhere on the globe- high noon to correct
some hoax from the 1st.</font></span></div>
<div><span></span> </div>
<div><span><font face="Courier New">I asked
you:</font></span></div>
<div><span></span> </div>
<div><span>
<div><span><font color="#008080" face="Courier New">1. Low Saxon 'smirken',
'smerken', 'smoerken'; meaning 'to realise the smell of fried bacon'. Could
it be in relation to Eastern-Prussian bound Low Saxon
<strong>'Spirkel'</strong><span>(*)</span>, standing
for 'roasted bacon'?</font></span></div>
<div><span></span> </div>
<div><span><font color="#008080" face="Courier New">2. Low Saxon 'inkoelen'. All
of us German Lowlanners should think it is 'to freeze down', G 'ein-kühlen', but
according to my sources its meaning is 'to overheat (a room, house
etc.)'. What could be the background of this word?</font></span></div>
<div><span></span> </div>
<div><span><font color="#008080" face="Courier New">3. Low Saxon 'quotern', in the
meaning of 'to complain about something'. On the very first glance it could be
related to English 'to quote' in the farest sense of ' to quarrel about
so./sth'.</font></span></div></span></div>
<div><span></span> </div>
<div><span><font face="Courier New">Meanwhile I made
some further investigations and found out interesting
things:</font></span></div>
<div><span></span> </div>
<div><span><font face="Courier New">1. 'smirken' etc..
I <em>happened</em> to find it in my own private collection of rare words; it
is described as 'Unsinnwort zum 1. April', and this literally
should be translated as 'nonsense-word for the 1st of
April'.(*)</font></span></div>
<div><span><font face="Courier New">3. 'quotern': just
the same nonsense</font></span></div>
<div><span></span> </div>
<div><span><font face="Courier New">Congratulations to
all of you who smelled a rat (or 'smirked the bacon'? ;-)) and didn't take part,
sorry for all the kind people that might have made intensive thoughts about
the etymology of these two words- beg your pardon! I won't do it again-
until next year ;-)...</font></span></div>
<div><span></span> </div>
<div><span><font face="Courier New">But to (2.) LS
'inkoelen'/'inkölen'(yes, Marcus, for our Western neighbours it's better written
with _ö_): it really is an old Low Saxon word in the meaning described
above, and the etymological speculations I found in <u>GRIMM</u> are
interesting. They suppose it to be related with E 'coal', G 'Kohle' and
write:</font></span></div>
<div><span></span> </div>
<div><span><font face="Courier New">('Kohle' [coal])
<font color="#0000ff">"...für den ursprung liegt der gedanke an kalt, kühl nahe,
bei deren stamme kol äuszerlich gute unterkunft
fände..."</font></font></span></div>
<div><span><font color="#0000ff" face="Courier New">"...spuren auch auszer dem nordischen in engl. kiln brennofen,
darre, ags. cylne, altn. norw. kylna, und selbst auf deutschem boden in nd.
inkölen stark einheizen..."</font></span></div>
<div><span></span> </div>
<div><span><font face="Courier New">Isn't
it fascinating that 'coal' could be related to 'cool'- "<em>cold
fire</em>"?! </font></span></div>
<div><span><font face="Courier New"><br> </font></span></div>
<div><span><font face="Courier New">(*) BTW: I
mentioned the word LS 'Spirkel', which really exists in the meaning of
'fried/roastet bacon'. Trying a research about its etymological background I
found:</font></span></div>
<div><span></span> </div>
<div><span><font face="Courier New"><u>(Lothringisches
WB, Uni Trier</u>)</font></span></div>
<div><span><font face="Courier New"><font color="#0000ff">"Spirkel [špírk?l D. Si.] m. der Monat Februar. Sp. < mlat.
spurcalis, spurcus <strong>schweinig</strong>, unflätig, unreinlich (weil im
Februar die Brunstzeit der größern Tiere beginnt). s. Grimm, Gesch. d. d. Spr.
2. Aufl. 64. – lux. 415 u. ss. Spirkel Kr. 124; ndl. Sporkel; ndrhein. Spurkel."
</font></font></span></div>
<div><span><font face="Courier New"><u>GRIMM under
lemma _sporkel_</u> </font></span></div>
<div><span><font color="#0000ff" face="Courier New">"...WEINHOLD monatsnamen s. 57 nimmt deutsche abkunft an, zieht
das niederl. und niederd. sprock, springend, brechbar, <strong>spröde</strong>,
ndl. sprockel, sprockelhout, dürres holz,..."</font></span></div>
<div><span></span> </div>
<div><span><font face="Courier New">So the German
translation could be 'kross gebratene Schweinerei' (= 'crispy piggishness')- of
course just worth a penny ;-)!</font></span></div>
<div><span></span> </div>
<div><span><font face="Courier New">Last but not least:
thanks, dear Ron, for improving 'lack' to 'lag', and thanks that you gave me a
chance for this stupid little joke. I strongly suppose that you had been
aware of my 'diabolic' intentions ;-)! </font></span></div>
<div><span></span> </div>
<div><span><font face="Courier New">(I'd never heard LS
'lak'/'Lack' in the meaning of E 'lack' before. <u>GRIMM</u> puts it into the
neighbourhood of G 'lau', though I cannot follow him/them at
<strong>this</strong> point: <font color="#0000ff"><em>'Dat Eetn hat
we</em><span lang="EN-GB"><font face="Times New Roman">ê</font></span><em>r
Lak noch Smack'.</em></font> I think<em> </em>here we might
be close to German 'Lake'['brine'], which I suppose to be from the
'lay'/'legen'/'Lage'-stem like G 'in Lake [ein-]legen'.)</font></span></div>
<div> </div>
<div align="left"><span><font face="Courier New">Have a
nice April, all together!</font></span></div>
<div align="left"><span></span> </div>
Jonny Meibohm<br><br>