LL-L "Etymology" 2008.04.03 (01) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L  - 03 April 2008 - Volume 01
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From: jonny <jonny.meibohm at arcor.de>
Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2008.04.01 (08) [E]

Beste Ron, beste Lowlanners,

today we've got the 3rd of April everywhere on the globe- high noon to
correct some hoax from the 1st.

I asked you:

 1. Low Saxon 'smirken', 'smerken', 'smoerken'; meaning 'to realise the
smell of fried bacon'. Could it be in relation to Eastern-Prussian bound Low
Saxon *'Spirkel'*(*), standing for 'roasted bacon'?

2. Low Saxon 'inkoelen'. All of us German Lowlanners should think it is 'to
freeze down', G 'ein-kühlen', but according to my sources its meaning is 'to
overheat (a room, house etc.)'. What could be the background of this word?

3. Low Saxon 'quotern', in the meaning of 'to complain about something'. On
the very first glance it could be related to English 'to quote' in the
farest sense of ' to quarrel about so./sth'.

Meanwhile I made some further investigations and found out interesting
things:

1. 'smirken' etc.. I *happened* to find it in my own private collection of
rare words; it is described as 'Unsinnwort zum 1. April', and this literally
should be translated as 'nonsense-word for the 1st of April'.(*)
3. 'quotern': just the same nonsense

Congratulations to all of you who smelled a rat (or 'smirked the bacon'?
;-)) and didn't take part, sorry for all the kind people that might have
made intensive thoughts about the etymology of these two words- beg your
pardon! I won't do it again- until next year ;-)...

But to (2.) LS 'inkoelen'/'inkölen'(yes, Marcus, for our Western neighbours
it's better written with _ö_): it really is an old Low Saxon word in the
meaning described above, and the etymological speculations I found in *GRIMM
* are interesting. They suppose it to be related with E 'coal', G 'Kohle'
and write:

('Kohle' [coal]) "...für den ursprung liegt der gedanke an kalt, kühl nahe,
bei deren stamme kol äuszerlich gute unterkunft fände..."
"...spuren auch auszer dem nordischen in engl. kiln brennofen, darre, ags.
cylne, altn. norw. kylna, und selbst auf deutschem boden in nd. inkölen
stark einheizen..."

Isn't it fascinating that 'coal' could be related to 'cool'- "*cold fire*
"?!


(*) BTW: I mentioned the word LS 'Spirkel', which really exists in the
meaning of 'fried/roastet bacon'. Trying a research about its etymological
background I found:

*(Lothringisches WB, Uni Trier*)
"Spirkel [špírk?l D. Si.] m. der Monat Februar. Sp. < mlat. spurcalis,
spurcus *schweinig*, unflätig, unreinlich (weil im Februar die Brunstzeit
der größern Tiere beginnt). s. Grimm, Gesch. d. d. Spr. 2. Aufl. 64. – lux.
415 u. ss. Spirkel Kr. 124; ndl. Sporkel; ndrhein. Spurkel."
*GRIMM under lemma _sporkel_*
"...WEINHOLD monatsnamen s. 57 nimmt deutsche abkunft an, zieht das niederl.
und niederd. sprock, springend, brechbar, *spröde*, ndl. sprockel,
sprockelhout, dürres holz,..."

So the German translation could be 'kross gebratene Schweinerei' (= 'crispy
piggishness')- of course just worth a penny ;-)!

Last but not least: thanks, dear Ron, for improving 'lack' to 'lag', and
thanks that you gave me a chance for this stupid little joke. I strongly
suppose that you had been aware of my 'diabolic' intentions ;-)!

(I'd never heard LS 'lak'/'Lack' in the meaning of E 'lack' before.
*GRIMM*puts it into the neighbourhood of G 'lau', though I cannot
follow him/them
at *this* point: *'Dat Eetn hat we*ê*r Lak noch Smack'.* I think* *here
we might be close to German 'Lake'['brine'], which I suppose to be from the
'lay'/'legen'/'Lage'-stem like G 'in Lake [ein-]legen'.)

Have a nice April, all together!

Jonny Meibohm
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