LL-L "Etymology" 2008.01.21 (08) [D/E]

[Lowlands-L List]

L O W L A N D S - L  -  21 January 2008 - Volume 08
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From: Jacqueline Bungenberg de Jong <Dutchmatters at comcast.net>
Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2008.01.21 (01) [D/E]

Roland, Re "tuchtig": In het Nederlands wordt "tochtig" ook gebruikt voor
een bronstige koe. Of het dialectisch is weet ik niet.

Het is mogelijk dat ik het me herinner van Dr Vlimmen, een van de Romans van
Roothart dat zich in Brabant of Limburg afspeelt.

Ik vind het een mooie uitdrukking. Jacqueline
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From: Luc Hellinckx <luc.hellinckx at gmail.com>
Subject: LL-L "Etymology"

Beste Ron,

You wrote:

*schummeln*:

   1. reinigen, schoonmaken (to clean)
   2. kuirpas, op zijn gemak wandelen (to amble, to walk in a sloppy way)
   3. oblichten (voornamelijk in spelen) [> *schummeln* Missingsch en
   andere Noordduitse dialecten] (to cheat (especially in games))

 Amazing to see how meanings can shift in a similar way.

Low Saxon, (re "schummeln" Foerste): sich schnell hin- und herbewegen >
betrügen
Brabantish, (re "schokken"): bounce up and down > husband secretly hoarding
part of his salary

Kind greetings,

Luc Hellinckx

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

Yeah, how about that, Luc?!

Low Saxon, (re "schummeln" Foerste): sich schnell hin- und herbewegen >
betrügen

For everyone else: Low Saxon *schummeln* 'to move rapidly back and forth',
'to cheat'

And previously we also mentioned the semantic branch of 'to clean'
('originally 'to scrub' I suppose).

Well, I think that "fast movement" > "slight of hand" > "trickery" >
"cheating" is what happened there in the semantic history.

Now, I have a feeling this ain't the end of the story either ... Remember my
"lectures" about "iterative ~ frequentive"? There you have it again, that
busy little /-l-/.

Don't take the vowel too seriously, because labial consonants (/m/, /b/,
/p/) have a way of making adjacent short vowels round (= labial); so there
might as well have been an /i/, /e/ or /a/ instead of the /u/ or /o/ for all
we know.

So now bear this in mind and take away that iterative ~ frequentive suffix
... and ... presto-changeo! ... we have "sham" (= 'trick', 'hoax', etc.),
noun, adjective and verb!

This is what the Oxford English dictionary has to say about the etymology:

[Of obscure origin; the word first appears as slang, together with the
related verb, about 1677, and immediately came into very frequent use.
  Commonly explained as in some way connected with *sham*, north. dial. form
of SHAME<http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/crossref?query_type=word&queryword=sham&first=1&max_to_show=10&sort_type=alpha&search_id=A887-dwBb6p-16260&result_place=1&xrefword=shame>
*n. *and* v.* This is not impossible, on the supposition that the slang word
arose from some once well-known anecdote or incident in a play. The
following quot. may possibly contain a genuine tradition, but the alleged
origin does not seem to account satisfactorily for the sense in the early
examples. (North says that the word was introduced into general use, in the
phrase 'sham plot', by Dangerfield; but it was already common some years
before 1680, the date to which this statement refers.)
  *a1734* NORTH <http://dictionary.oed.com/help/bib/oed2-n.html#north> *
Exam.* II. iv. §1 (1740) 231 The word *Sham* is true Cant of the Newmarket
Breed. It is contracted of *ashamed*. The native Signification is a Town
Lady of Diversion, in Country Maid's Cloaths, who to make good her Disguise,
pretends to be so *sham'd!* Thence it became proverbial, when a maimed Lover
was laid up, or looked meager, to say he had met with a *Sham*.]

So what if it's related to iterative *schummel* ~ *schommel*? And might
"scam" be related to it too? Again, the *OED* says its origin is obscure,
but it seems to be of American origin and has been attested only since the
early 20th century. Might it be a variant of "sham" which has been known
since the 17th century (an era of many Dutch loans, by the way)? Is there a
Dutch word **scham* or **schom*, old or new, that might be related? (I don't
think that the "shame" group is related to it, though.)

And the plot keeps thickening ...

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
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