LL-L "Names" 2003.04.21 (05) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Names

I wrote:

> _Dege tau_ ~ _dege to_ (modern _deegt/deger(n) tau/to_ "hard to") could
have
> occurred in phrases such as _Lang (man) dege to!_ 'Helps yourself
> (liberally/unabashedly (to food))!', _Se schirrwarkt dege to_ 'She works
> hard doing her chores', or just _Dege to!_ (modern _Nu man deger(n) to!_)
> 'Go at it!', "Give it all you have!'  (much like Japanese _ganbatte!_).  I
> can well imagine that this could have been used as a nickname for someone
> who was known as a hard worker or eater, and nicknames often ended up
> becoming surnames.

¡Hola, Jorge!

Why didn’t I think of this earlier?  As an exclamation, _Dege tau!_ ~ _Dege
to!_ (like contemporary _(Nu) Maal (deger(n)) tau/to!_) tends to correspond
to Spanish _¡Ándale!_.

The adjective/adverb _degern_ seems to suggest that at one time there was a
verb *_deger(e)n_ (infinitive *_deege-r-en_, participial *_deeg-er-en-d_ >
modern adjectival/adverbial _degern_).  I wonder if this *_deege_ is related
to Dutch _degelijk_ and Afrikaans _deeglik_ 'sound', 'substantial',
'thorough', 'upright (in character)', 'upstanding', 'of good quality'.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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From: Global Moose Translations <globalmoose at t-online.de>
Subject: LL-L "Names" 2003.04.21 (02) [E]

Hi Jorge,

Degetau sounds quite Lower Saxon to me, too; however, I searched for the
name in my German phonebook software, which contains all phone numbers
listed in Germany in 2000, and it doesn't appear there at all.

So either it wasn't Lower Saxon after all, or maybe the name has died out.

Cheers,
Gabriele Kahn

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