The Broncks', the borough of my childhood, fades away

[Paul Johnston]

The Dutch word is "bouwerij", but isn't this related, instead, to the
Germanic root, to build, to settle (as well as the word for
farmer=settler, Dutch boer/German Bauer), Germanic buw-.  Dutch has
bouwen, to build, and gebouw, building, structure.
Bovine is a Latin loan, and its Germanic cognates  are cow/koe/Kuh
and so on < IE gwou-.

Paul Johnston
On Dec 5, 2007, at 12:03 PM, David Donnell wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       David Donnell <David.Donnell at EARTHLINK.NET>
> Subject:      Re: The Broncks', the borough of my childhood, fades
> away
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> ---------
>
> The NYC street I live on is widely known as "the Bowery", but the
> official street name is just "Bowery".
>
> Google results:
>
>       27,600 for "on Bowery"
>       153,000 for "on the Bowery"
>
> Myself, I tend to say "I live on Bowery", but I have no real
> preference. (OTOH, I used to live in the Bronx, and couldn't imagine
> ever saying "I used to live in Bronx.")
>
> Also, I'm not aware of any other NYC street names that are just one
> word--Bowery has no "Street" or "Avenue", etc, as part of the name.
>
> The origin of "Bowery", if I remember correctly: it comes from a
> Dutch word for "farm". (Related to the English word "bovine", I
> think). Back in the days when this city was called New Amsterdam, the
> street was a cow path leading up to Gov. Peter Stuyvesant's farm
> around what is now 14th Street.
>
> Corrections welcome.
>
> DD
> Missourian in NYC
>
>
> At 12:46 PM -0800 12/3/07, Arnold M. Zwicky wrote:
>> On Dec 3, 2007, at 12:05 PM, Joel Berson wrote:
>>
>>>  Well, it's happening.  In the Boston Globe today (Dec. 3), in the
>>>  article "Lone 'boy' on campus", by Keith O'Brien (B1), about the
>>> only
>>>  male attending Wellesley College this fall, O'Brien writes
>>>  "[Mohammad] Usman, who grew up in Bronx, N.Y., has come to
>>> Wellesley
>>>  on a semester-long exchange program."
>>>
>>>  Safire would be distressed -- as I am.
>>
>> regrettably large number of hits for {"in Bronx NY"}, not to mention
>> in other contexts.
>>
>> i've said on Language Log that familiarity tends to breed
>> anarthrousness.  in this case, i suspect that unfamiliarity is
>> breeding anarthrousness.
>>
>> arnold
>
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