LL-L: "Etymology" LOWLANDS-L, 09.JAN.2001 (06) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 09.JAN.2001 (06) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Criostoir O Ciardha [paada_please at yahoo.co.uk]
Subject: LL-L: "Etymology" LOWLANDS-L, 09.JAN.2001 (01) [E]

A chairde,

I often wondered about the etymology of West Frisian
"heit" ("father"), particularly as its seeming
"unGermanicness" in the Paternoster is so striking
next to variations of "vaader" or "Fader". I reached a
theoretical compromise based on my background in the
Celtic languages: I presumed (inanely) that it was a
child word, as is the case with English "Dad" "Daddy"
and "Da". In Breton, Welsh and Cornish the diminutive
or "nursery" form of title - "tad", "tad" and "taze"
respectively - have all supplanted the usual standard
Indo-European root, which has been retained in the
Gaelic versions counterpart to the Brythonic: Scots
and Irish Gaelic "athair" and Manx Gaelic "ayr".

Go raibh maith agaibh,

Críostóir.

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From: Sandy Fleming [sandy at scotstext.org]
Subject: "Etymology"

> From: R. F. Hahn [sassisch at yahoo.com]
> Subject: Etymology
>
> Could Scots _keek_ go back to some Old English word that did not
> make it into
> Modern English?  Can anyone think of such a word?

The Scottish National Dictionary lists "keek" as occurring
in Old Scots from about 1470, and gives both the Dutch
kijken and Old English kiken/keken by way of etymology.

It's important to understand that Scots "keek" is _not_
a cognate of the Dutch "kijken", ie it doesn't mean "look".
I've seen some actual examples of beginners in Scots
making this mistake and producing incorrect Scots.
Although Scots "keek" is used more generally than the
English "peep" or "peek" (eg Scots for looking-glass is
"keekin-gless"), it really means to look very briefly or
momentarily at something. When you hear a Scots speaker
saying "tak a keek in the dictionar", there's a certain
amount of humour involved - as if you could look up the
dictionary with a momentary glance! It would be wrong,
however, to say, "keek it up in the dictionary" or "he's
been keekin at us for the past five meenits" (unless you
mean he's been giving quick glances in our direction - but
this would probably be made explicit in some way, eg "he's
been keekin ower at us for the past five meenits").

Sandy
http://scotstext.org
"Him that keeks throu a keyhole micht see what will vex him."

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