LL-L: "Etymology" LOWLANDS-L, 20.SEP.2000 (01) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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From: Christian Chiarcos <myrddin at cs.tu-berlin.de>
Subject: LL-L: "Etymology" LOWLANDS-L, 19.SEP.2000 (02) [E/F]

> From: Reiner Brauckmann [Reiner.Brauckmann at FernUni-Hagen.de]
> Subject: LL-L: "Etymology" LOWLANDS-L, 17.SEP.2000 (06) [E]
>
> > From: R. F. Hahn [sassisch at yahoo.com]
> > Subject: Etymology
> >
> > Dear Lowlanders,
> >
> > I am not aware of a cognate of _barn_ and _bairn_ for 'child' in any
> > modern variety of the "Low German" group of languages, i.e., Dutch,
> > Afrikaans and Low Saxon (Low German).  However, Old Saxon did have _barn_
> > 'child'.  I am not sure about Old Low Franconian.  If such a word
> > survived, I would expect to find *_bern_ in Dutch and Afrikaans, and
> ...
> Westfalian 'Blage' means child , and 'Hauhnerblage' means
> chicken. It seems, that other Lowlanders dont know this word.
>
> Reiner
>
> ----------
>
> From: R. F. Hahn [sassisch at yahoo.com]
> Subject: Etymology
>
> Reiner,
>
> It is _Blage_ or _Blaag'_ for 'child' (f. ~ n., pl. _Blagen_) in several North
> Saxon dialects also.  Most often it denotes 'naughty child', 'brat', similar
> to _Göör_.  *_Hö(h)nerblaag'_ for 'chickens' is new to me.  What is that
> about?  Perhaps Westphalian chickens are particularly naughty, difficult to
> manage?  ;)
>
> Does anyone have any idea about the etymology of _Blage_ > _Blaag'_?
>
> Regards,
> Reinhard/Ron

what about a connection with HG _bläken_ 'to cry, esp. of little children',
and maybe _blöken_ 'to make sheep-like sounds, to scream stupidly'

at least _bläken_ might be from *_blaakjan_, which could easily become
*_blaagen_ by lenition of the velar and loss of the slide, _blaag(e)_ would be
the corresponding noun the negative connotation maybe because of direct (!)
influence of HG _plage_ ?

greetings,
christian

----------

From: john feather [johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk]
Subject:

Michael wrote:

>Moreover, the abstract sense [of beam] lead it to "ray" ...

>A way to disprove the proverb "all that glitters is not gold" ...

>Have you got other words in modern English that lost their first meaning ?<

According to Chambers Etymological Dictionary, "beam" as in "beam of light" is
apparently from a loan translation of Latin "columna lucis", literally a
column or pillar of light. "Moonbeam" is an invention of Shakespeare's, 1590.

I suppose "All that glitters is not gold" is a proverb now, though its
origin is normally attributed to a line in a poem by Thomas Gray (18th
century).

There are lots of words in modern English which have lost their first
meaning. I just came across Greek "martyr", a witness. There are lots of
others in the religious field: vicar, curate, rector, angel, demon.

"Scarlet" is a good one. Will Scarlet, R Hood's side-kick, would have stuck
out like a sore thumb in Sherwood Forest if he'd been dressed in a shade of
red, but in the 13th century the word probably only meant a kind of fine cloth
(though before that it may have come from a Persian word for a red cloth), so
he was just a snappy dresser.

"Yesterday" (originally meaning "tomorrow") goes back much further.

John Feather johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk

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