LL-L "Etymology" 2007.11.10 (04) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L  -  06 November 2007 - Volume 04
Song Contest: lowlands-l.net/contest/ (- 31 Dec. 2007)
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From: Jacqueline Bungenberg de Jong <Dutchmatters at comcast.net>
Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2007.11.10 (01) [D/E]

Elsie gives the definition of Afrikaans skoorzoek as looking for trouble and
skoorvoet as walking around looking for trouble.

Hi Elsie, Guess what! In Dutch schoorvoetend means (and I am quoting van
Dale) " de voeten schrap zettend, thans  alleen fig. tegenstribbelend,
aarzelend of weifelend voort- of te werk gaan". If we assume that the word
came to South Africa with the original sailors, we need to ask somebody with
a historical dictionary to find out what it meant in the 16th century
andwhether the meaning changed in the Northern hemisphere or in the South.
Jacqueline

And then Ron comes up with this:

<<Hmm ... I wonder if this has anything to do with German and Low
Saxon *scharren
~ schurren* 'to scrape', 'to <shuffel (one's feet)'. If so, there's supposed
to be a connection between this and German *schaben*, Low <Saxon
*schaven*and English
*shave*.
<This may may show us once again that a large number of forms have been
generated from a fairly small <number of ancestral roots.

Dutch knows both ""schaven" (to plane, to polish and that must certainly be
a 1st cousin to chafe) and "scheren" (to shave a beard or to shear a sheep)

There is another Dutch derivation?? with a totally differerent meaning. "Een
mensenschaar a large group of people" from the verb "scharen" to come
together for a lofty purpose. How interesting to see one root acquire so
many different meanings. Jacqueline
----------

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

Howdy, Naversch Jacqueline!

There is another Dutch derivation?? with a totally differerent meaning. "Een
mensenschaar a large group of people" from the verb "scharen" to come
together for a lofty purpose.

Indeed! I see your etymological antennae are growing very nicely.

Dutch and Low Saxon *schaar* and German *Schar *'host (of people)' do indeed
belong to this family, as does ... tadah! ... English "share" both in the
sense of "division" and "blade of a plow".

And here's another tadah: "sharp" and its equivalents are members of this
family as well!

How interesting to see one root acquire so many different meanings.

This is one of the reasons why etymology can be quite thrilling (probably in
a "geeky" sort of way).

As you can see, we are dealing with roots and affixes. In this regard,
Indo-European is very much like its two large Eurasian comrades: Uralic and
Altaic, except that they only use suffixes (such as the **-p* in "sharp"),
no prefixes (such as the **s-* in this family of **ker-* *'cut').

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

•

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