LL-L "Idiomatica" 2004.03.18 (09) [E]

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From: Jan Strunk <strunkjan at hotmail.com>
Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2004.03.18 (02) [E]

Leive Lüe,

Rick schreev:
> "Most du ein siddel an der topmast hebb'n ?" Its the word "siddel" which i
> cannot
> place. In Dutch there is no word which comes close to this. Can anyone
> tell me something about its origin?
Or kunn dat villicht dat wuord "seddel" (westföölsch siäddel) siin.
Dat wärd woll en leenwuord ut't haugdüütsche siin: Zettel (small piece of
paper).
Ek wiet nich af dat möglik es. Ek verstaoh aover auk nich wat dat küersel
bedüden sall.

Kumpelmente!

Jan Strunk
jstrunk at stanford.edu

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From: Global Moose Translations <globalmoose at t-online.de>
Subject: LL-L "Idiomatica" 2004.03.18 (06) [E]

Ron wrote the following to explain the expression "Most du ein siddel an der
topmast hebb'n ?":

> Here are my theories:
>
> (1) Being seated or placed at the topmast used to be some sort of corporal
> punishment on sailing vessels.  (Does anyone know about such?)
>
> (2) Being perched up on the topmast (which would be very high up) you get
> whipped by the wind, or "get clips around the ears" from the wind.  (This
> happens to you just standing on a dike in Northern Friesland on a normal
day
> ...)  Therefore, when working with sails, the topmast position may have
been
> the least favored, and being smacked around the face came to be rendered
as
> "having a topmast position."
>
> It could even be a combination of both of the above.

I beg to disagree; I think there's a much easier explanation. The "topmast"
is probably your head or the top thereof. And a "siddel" must be something
related to what I know, unfortunately, as a "Backs" in Lower Saxon (as in
"Willste'n Backs?", which is also an inquiry as to whether the person asked
would like to have his face come into painful contact with the asker's
hand).

Gabriele Kahn

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