LL-L "Etymology" 2007.03.26 (05) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 26 March 2007 - Volume 05

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From: Luc Hellinckx <luc.hellinckx at gmail.com>
Subject: LL-L "Etymology"

Beste Theo,

You wrote:

Is "gipr" an Oldicelandic word??

That's what I read in Prof. dr. A.A. Weijnen's "Etymologisch
dialectwoordenboek" anyway. Maybe you got confused, because I didn't spell
"gipr" correctly; it should actually be written with a long "i", like "gīpr"
(hope the right "i" comes through).

Regarding the word "kwelp" (rounding Brabantish pronunciation "kwölep",
compare "schelp" ~ "schölep" (B)), I can testify that the word is definitely
still in use. Last saturday my dad was talking to me about concrete blocks,
weighing 5 ton each, that a construction firm had dropped in a little
brooklet to throw up a dam. Unfortunately, he said, the blocks soon vanished
because they sunk into the "kwölep", which I would roughly translate as
"marshland", "bog". In sandy soil, "kwelp" can also mean "quicksand",
"drijfzand" (D).

The word must be fairly common in the south, maybe more in its form "kwelm"
than "kwelp". Under the entry "kwelm", Weijnen writes:

*kwelm, kwelp* grondwater, grond waaruit water komt (limb., vla., antw.). =
mnl. *quelm *'grondwater'. ~* kwel*

The "Land van Hulst" in the province of Zeeland, knows the word too, but
uses:

*kwalp* het afzakken van een slootkant t.g.v. kwelwater. Abl. verwant met
aldaar ook voorkomend *kwelp*, dat hetzelfde en 'drijfzand' betekent en een
uitbreiding vertoont van de wortel die in mnl. * quellen* 'opborrelen'
voortleeft. Dezelfde uitbreiding als in oijsl. *gīpr *'muil' naast ohgd. *gīēn
*'gapen'.

Eastern Brabant seems to favor a word with a Saxon cognate, kweb:

*kweb* moerassige plek (brab.). = wfa. *kwebbe* 'moeras'. Afl. met een
umlautveroorzakende factor van eng. *quab* 'moeras' (= no.
*kvabb*'brijachtige massa'). ~ fri.
*kwabje * 'puilen'. ~ eng. *quaver* 'trillen'. ~ opruis. *gabawo* 'pad',
russ. *žába *'pad'. Van een wortel die 'lillend' betekent.

'Quebbe' can also be found in Krünitz' dictionary:

http://www.kruenitz1.uni-trier.de/xxx/q/kq00284.htm

*quebbe**,* im Niedersächsischen, ein morastiger, oben mit einer festeren
Grasrinde bedeckter Grund, welcher zittert, wenn man darauf tritt.

The word "kwab" generated two other Brabantish words:

*kwacht *< *kwaft ~ kwab, denoting "laaggelegen vochtige grond"

*(k)waps, (k)weps* adjective used to describe a puffy, flabby face

Voilà...that's it for now,

Kind greetings,

Luc Hellinckx
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