LL-L "Etymology" 2007.07.25 (02) [A/E]

[Lowlands-L List]

L O W L A N D S - L  -  25 July 2007 - Volume 02

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From: Maria Elsie Zinsser <ezinsser at icon.co.za>
Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2007.07.24 (03) [A/E]

Haai almal,

Elaine, bly om jou op ons lys te hê. Hoe meer siele hoe meer vreugde.

Fiets is ook 'n Nederlandse woord. Wikipedia sê: Een *fiets* is een voertuig
voor een of meer personen, dat door spierkracht wordt voortgedreven. Tot
1966 was de wettelijke term in Nederland rijwiel.

Die een fiets-woord wat my altyd groot plesier verskaf het, is 'baaisikkel',
volksetimologie vir bicycle gebruik deur Afrikaans tweedetaal sprekers vir
die nederige trapfiets.

Groete,
Elsie Zinsser

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From: "Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at nb.net>
Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2007.07.24 (03) [A/E]

>The orgin ' of the word fiets' or 'trapfiets' for bicycle, velo, etc
>seems to be not well documented in Nederlands or Afrikaans.  Does
>anyone have information? Are there other languages where a bicycle
>is called a fiets?

Here is a discussion from 1901, for what it's worth:

http://books.google.com/books?id=XAK6cslVJK8C&pg=PA407&dq=fiets+date:1901&num=100

-- Doug Wilson

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

I was under the impression that Dutch and Afrikaans fiets 'bicycle' go back
to French vélocipède.

Velociped used to be used in German also, and in Switzerland it is still
commonly Velo while elsewhere it is Fahrrad.

Fiets and Fietse are also used in many Low Saxon dialects on the German side
of the border, namely in Eastern Friesland and Münsterland, while in the
area of Münster in Westphalia it is Leeze (['le:tse]. It's mostly fiets and
fietse in Low Saxon of the Netherlands.

Indonesian has sepeda which I assume came from an earlier Dutch version of
vélocipède (*velsepede?). Other Indonesian languages have related words,
either borrowed directly or via Indonesian; e.g. Sundanese sapédah and
Javanese pit.  Incidentally, this is one of the many loanwords that
differentiate otherwise mutually intelligible Indonesian (Malay) from
Malaysian Malay, since the latter has English loanwords instead of Dutch
ones. (Malaysian has basikal.)

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
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