<div style="text-align: center; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">=========================================================================<br>L O W L A N D S - L - 10 April 2008 - Volume 03<br>
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=========================================================================<br></div><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">From: Danette & John Howland <<a href="mailto:dan_how@msn.com">dan_how@msn.com</a>></span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2008.03.09 (02) [D/E]</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">Dear Ron,</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">You wrote:</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">
<blockquote style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">My hunch is that <i>blank</i> used to be different from plain <i>wit</i> 'white' in that it denoted 'sparkling white' or 'strikingly white (in the distance)'.</blockquote>
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">And Luc Hellinckx' reply included the following: </span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="margin-right: 0px; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">
"Blikken, in
this sense, means "shine, to make visible" (notice the relation with
"blinken"). This "blijken"-family is one of the few families in
Germanic, that stems from Indo-European root *bhel (shining, white).
Examples:<br>
<ul><li>bliss (E), blij (D)<br></li><li>blister (E), blush (E), blozen (D), older/dialectic Dutch "verblestern" (to singe)</li><li>blind, blond</li><li>Belarus</li><li>..."</li></ul></blockquote>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);" dir="ltr">This got me to wondering, as I watched
a family of bald eagles circling over my house, about two more words
with the meaning "shining or blazing white." The first is "bald" which
I take to mean "shining" and I have always imagined must be related to
the origin of <i>Baldr, </i>the Norse god of daylight. The second
word brought to mind is "blaze" as in a flaring flame or the white
marking on the faces of horses or cattle. Could both of these words be
related to the I-E root *bhel that Luc mentioned? And is <i>blank</i> in the same family?</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="margin-right: 0px; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">Sorry, I
don't have my dictionaries with me or I would do my own homework. I
hope this will stimulate some discussion about cognates in other
lowland tongues. What interests me is how important the idea of
shining/blazing/burning/glowing appearance must have been to our
distant ancestors as reflected in speech, e.g., "brand" as a kenning
for "sword" in Old English poetry. Other words for radiance or
qualities of light such as <i>blink, glimmer, glisten, glow, shimmer, shine, sparkle, twinkle, dim</i>, and <i>flash. </i>Perhaps also: <i>morn/morwen/morgen </i>and <i>dusk</i>. And I love the word <i>gloaming.</i></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="margin-right: 0px; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">Have fun with this.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="margin-right: 0px; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">John Howland</p><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">----------</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><font style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);" size="2"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font size="2">From: R. F. Hahn <<a href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com" target="_blank">sassisch@yahoo.com</a>>
<br>
Subject: Etymology<br><br>Nice one, John, and so American too! ;-) And it's great to hear from you, of course. The Kahuna looks pleased and may well include you in the next round of honors. (I can't promise this, since the old coot marches to his own drummer.)<br>
<br>Apparently, "bald" <b>is</b> a part of the *<i>bhel-</i> family, hence Celtic *<i>bal</i> 'blaze' (white patch on a horse's forehead), in extension Albanian <i>bale</i> 'forehead', and Latin <i>fulcia</i> 'coot' (which has a white spot on its head). Sanskrit भलम् <i>bhalam </i>links it: 'paleness', 'forehead'.</font></span></font><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">I can see now that etymological seeds do germinate here, even over time.</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">Regards,</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">Reinhard/Ron</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">