Q: "lanechtskipt" -- perhaps "lanDechtskip[e]t"?

[Joel S. Berson]

At 11/11/2013 03:45 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>Spanbock beat me to it.
>
>I suspect it was a fake beast with a fanciful name.

Perhaps, although the accompanying lion was certainly real.  (I don't
know what a spotted "whight hare", the third animal in the list,
might have been.  And that spelling certainly leaves room for
misspelling of the "lanechtskipt".)  But then, the equally puzzling
and interesting question is, what was the name fancied up
from?  (Additionally, the only documented exotic animals exhibited in
Boston through 1735 were lions, camels, and polar bears.)

>People were more easily entertained back then.

True, but sophisticated animal-fakers were probably much rarer in
Boston in 1735 than in London.

Joel


>JL
>
>
>On Mon, Nov 11, 2013 at 2:46 PM, Spanbock/Svoboda-Spanbock <
>spanbocks at verizon.net> wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Spanbock/Svoboda-Spanbock <spanbocks at VERIZON.NET>
> > Subject:      Re: Q: "lanechtskipt" -- perhaps "lanDechtskip[e]t"?
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Jackalope? Jersey Devil?
> >
> >
> > On Nov 11, 2013, at 11:12 AM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
> >
> > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> > > Subject:      Re: Q: "lanechtskipt" -- perhaps "lanDechtskip[e]t"?
> > >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > >
> > > Stephen Goranson wrote
> > >> wild guess: lynx cat
> > >
> > > Perhaps, but I have no evidence for or against.
> > >
> > > W Brewer wrote:
> > >> WAG from left field: Norwegian
> > >> (1) Looks Germanic.
> > >> (2) skip-et means 'the ship' in Norwegian.
> > >> (3) <the ship ...> sc. of the desert = camel.
> > >> (4) lanecht (?)
> > >> (5) Did the Vikings have camels? :)  (This is definitely more
> > >> plausible than Haitians.)
> > >
> > > Interestingly, the historian whose manuscript cites the one and only
> > > appearance of lanechtskipt also supposes "camel", but does not write
> > > why he so supposes.  (I will ask him.)  In the vein of Germanic,
> > > "echt" can mean "genuine, true"; but what about "lan"?
> > >
> > > The primary source must be the manuscript record of a meeting of the
> > > Boston Selectmen in 1735, and therefore subject to either
> > > mispronunciation or misspelling by the petitioner or misspelling or
> > > mistranscription by the clerk.
> > >
> > > Thus might the original have been "lanDechtskip[e]t" (confusing
> > > pronunciation of "nd" with "n"?) = "true ship of the land (earth,
> > > soil -- desert?)"?!  Google Translate detects Dutch, but does not
> > > translate "landechtskip[e]t" into English.  Perhaps a nonce
> > > word.  Dutch for "camel" is "kameel", which must long antedate the
> > > 18th century.  Google Web and Books do not find "landechtskip[e]t".
> > >
> > > In passing, Haitian Creole is perhaps more plausible than
> > > Norwegian.  A camel visiting Boston in February 1739 (perhaps the
> > > same beast as the "lanechtskipt" of 1735?) was advertised as "bound
> > > for the West Indies" in March; perhaps it had been in Haiti in
> > > 1735.  Of course, the advertisement may merely have been a come-on to
> > > induce visitors; a minister from Westborough visiting family in
> > > Boston went to see the camel the very next day.
> > >
> > > Why Dutch?  Like Norway, few camels resident. But a Dutch ship
> > > captain might have picked up a camel on a voyage to the Mediterranean
> > region.
> > >
> > > hw gray wrote:
> > >> On Sun, Nov 10, 2013 at 11:57 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net>
> > wrote:
> > >>
> > >>> "lanechtskipt"
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> "Landesknecht"?
> > >
> > > "Country servant"?  No, a lanechtskipt must be a somewhat exotic
> > > animal (at least for Boston in the early 18th century).
> > >
> > > Joel
> > >
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>
>--
>"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org