LL-L "Etyhmology" 2008.04.09 (03) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L  - 10 April 2008 - Volume 03
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From: Danette & John Howland <dan_how at msn.com>
Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2008.03.09 (02) [D/E]

Dear Ron,

You wrote:

My hunch is that *blank* used to be different from plain *wit* 'white' in
that it denoted 'sparkling white' or 'strikingly white (in the distance)'.

And Luc Hellinckx' reply included the following:

"Blikken, in this sense, means "shine, to make visible" (notice the relation
with "blinken"). This "blijken"-family is one of the few families in
Germanic, that stems from Indo-European root *bhel (shining, white).
Examples:

   - bliss (E), blij (D)
   - blister (E), blush (E), blozen (D), older/dialectic Dutch
   "verblestern" (to singe)
   - blind, blond
   - Belarus
   - ..."

This got me to wondering, as I watched a family of bald eagles circling over
my house, about two more words with the meaning "shining or blazing white."
The first is "bald" which I take to mean "shining" and I have always
imagined must be related to the origin of *Baldr, *the Norse god of
daylight. The second word brought to mind is "blaze" as in a flaring flame
or the white marking on the faces of horses or cattle. Could both of these
words be related to the I-E root *bhel that Luc mentioned? And is *blank* in
the same family?

Sorry, I don't have my dictionaries with me or I would do my own homework. I
hope this will stimulate some discussion about cognates in other lowland
tongues. What interests me is how important the idea of
shining/blazing/burning/glowing appearance must have been to our distant
ancestors as reflected in speech, e.g., "brand" as a kenning for "sword" in
Old English poetry. Other words for radiance or qualities of light
such as *blink,
glimmer, glisten, glow, shimmer, shine, sparkle, twinkle, dim*, and *flash.
*Perhaps also: *morn/morwen/morgen *and *dusk*. And I love the word *
gloaming.*

Have fun with this.

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

Nice one, John, and so American too! ;-) And it's great to hear from you, of
course. The Kahuna looks pleased and may well include you in the next round
of honors. (I can't promise this, since the old coot marches to his own
drummer.)

Apparently, "bald" *is* a part of the **bhel-* family, hence Celtic
**bal*'blaze' (white patch on a horse's forehead), in extension
Albanian
*bale* 'forehead', and Latin *fulcia* 'coot' (which has a white spot on its
head). Sanskrit भलम् *bhalam *links it: 'paleness', 'forehead'.

I can see now that etymological seeds do germinate here, even over time.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
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