<div style="text-align: center; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">===========================================<br>L O W L A N D S - L - 01 July 2009 - Volume 03<br style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);"><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);"><a href="mailto:lowlands@lowlands-l.net">lowlands@lowlands-l.net</a> - <a href="http://lowlands-l.net/">http://lowlands-l.net/</a></span><br style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);">
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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="gI"><span class="gD" style="color: rgb(121, 6, 25);">Marcus Buck</span> <span class="go"><<a href="mailto:list@marcusbuck.org">list@marcusbuck.org</a>></span></span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Subject: </span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="gI">LL-L "Etymology" 2009.07.01 (02) [EN]</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: idebruin <</span><a style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" href="mailto:idebruin@home.nl" target="_blank">idebruin@home.nl</a><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> <mailto:</span><a style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" href="mailto:idebruin@home.nl" target="_blank">idebruin@home.nl</a><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">>></span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
Subject: makkar<br>
<br>
Hello /makkers/<br>
<br>
I think the of the Dutch word makker (friend) Â is derived from Hebrew
 רכּמ /makkar /which means acquaintance, friend. Before the second
world war there used to live a lot of Jewish people in the Netherlands
and they enriched the Dutch language with a lot of words – /jat,/
/jof/e/l/, /bajes/, /lef/, /Mokum/ etc. Moreover the Dutch never made
bones about picking up words from other languages. I wonder whether
there are Hebrew words to be found in other European languages.<br>
<br>
</blockquote><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
From: R. F. Hahn <</span><a style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com" target="_blank">sassisch@yahoo.com</a><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> <mailto:</span><a style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com" target="_blank">sassisch@yahoo.com</a><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">>></span><div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="im">
<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
Subject: Etymology<br>
<br>
Hello, dear Iwe!<br>
<br>
First of all, welcome to the talking team! I'm happy you took the step.<br>
<br>
And you did so with a bang. Some of us that should have known better (including yours truly) should hang their heads in shame.<br>
<br>
You are absolutely right, מכר means 'acquaintance', 'companion' in Hebrew.<br>
<br>
Duh! "Problem" solved.<br>
</blockquote></div><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
I doubt that. Words like 'jofel' and 'lef' were introduced into Dutch
via Bargoens. Bargoens did not exist until the 17th century.
'mackerschap' is first attested 1565. It's a compound, so the single
word 'macker' is likely to be even older. There were no Jews (or very,
very, very few Jews) in the Netherlands and Northern Germany in the
earliest times. Some few Jews are attested since around 1300, but no
bigger communities existed before the expulsion of the Jews from Spain
in 1492. But they didn't reach the North directly and in areas like
Holland or Hamburg Jews only arrived at the end of the 16th century.
'macker' and 'mackerschap' are coastal words. That makes a Hebrew
origin even more unlikely. The Jews engaged in trade, but mostly in
land-based trade.</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
It's not technically impossible that the word made its way from Hebrew
into the languages of the Westgermanic North Sea coast, but its seems
very unlikely to me.</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;">
The other explanation of a reanalysis of a cognate Old English /maka/
'companion', 'husband' is not convincing too. Regular sound shifts
would have changed that to 'make' at an early stage and the two sound
'-a' and '-er' were quite different back then (unlike today).</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;">
I'd rather stick with the explanation that the word is old and related
to Low Saxon 'mack', English 'match' and German 'gemach' and means
'somebody you can stand'. Of course there's no proof for that too (and
hardly ever will be if no attestance older than 1565 is produced
somehow), but at least there are no arguments that stand against it.</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><font style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" color="#888888">
<br>
Marcus Buck</font><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
•
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