LL-L 'Etymology' 2006.08.16 (05] [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 16 August 2006 * Volume 05
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From: R. F. Hahn [sassisch at yahoo.com]
Subject: Rhyming slang 

Folks,

The etymology of non-American English "dunny" for 'outdoor toilet' (in Australia
now 'toilet' in general) is not known, according the _The Oxford English
Dictionary_, but some link it with "dung" and "ken" (assumedly "dung ken" > "dunny").

"Ken"--perhaps not used much these days--means 'house'.  Originally, before it
came to be adopted into the language at large, it served as a vagabond jargon
word for a house in which beggars, vagrants, thieves and other choice company meet.

The word first appeared in writing in 1567, in _A caueat or warening for commen
cursetors, vulgarely called vagabones_:

p. 83: A ken, a house.
p. 85: Tower ye, yander is the kene.*
* Look ye! Yonder is the ken.

The _OED_ offers no etymological clues beyond that.  However, oh so brilliant
little moi came up with one right away:

Romany:
khena ~ khen ~ ken 'house'
(aside from more usual _kher_ 'house', probably related to Sanskrit and Hindi घेर
_gher(a)_ 'surrounding', 'boundary', 'yard' > Mongolian _ger_ 'yurt')

_Khena_ ~ _khen_ ~ _ken_ possibly came from a Rotwelsch-like jargon, namely from
Hebrew קֵן    _qen_ 'nest', possibly via Western Yiddish or Ladino.

No related word shows up in Sanskrit.

However, an equivalent is apparently not found in Continental Rotwelsch.  It
appears to be specific to Britain, has been varified in British Romany.

Roma ("Gypsy") people's presence in Northern Europe has been reported since the
early 15th century (Hildesheim, Northern Germany, 1407).  The date of their
arrival in Britain does not seem to be known, though we do know that some of them
lived in Scotland in the 16th century.

Jews were officially banned from Britain between 1290 and 1656, but I assume that
many lived in hiding.  Also, Sephardic communities from Iberia began to spring up
before that, possibly arriving from the Iberian Peninsula via Amsterdam and/or
Hamburg.  It was this community's "unmasking" or "discovery" in England and
Cromwell's need for their money that the ban came to be lifted, not officially
though.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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