LL-L "Etymology" 2008.01.31 (01) [E]

[Lowlands-L List]

L O W L A N D S - L  -  31 January 2008 - Volume 01
=========================================================================

From: Glenn Simpson <westwylam at yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L "Etymology" [E/N]

O' yi alreet theor Rurn bonny laird!

You may be right re 'codger'. 'Cadge' is used in
Northumberland meaning to 'beg'.

Northumbrian has this tradition of 'mangling' words. A
couple of possible examples jump to mind: 'beil' or
'beal', which means cry or whinge, which I suspect is
the Northumbrian version of the middle or old English
'bale' to cry. And possibly a better example is
'bezzalar' to be 'greedy' - is it a mutation of
'embezzle'? Also, 'hinny' for 'honey' (In Scots =
'hen'?).

Keep a-howld.

Glenn

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

Wot cheor, Glenn!

Canny te heor frem ye agyen, marra, an te knaa ye're
still wiv us an keekin in. Weor hev ye beon? Ye areet?

Now that you mentioned the use of "gadgie" in the
sense of "old man," I started wondering about "(old)
codger." Apparently, the etymology of this isn't
totally certain, according to the Oxford English
Dictionary. It may be a dialectical variant of
"cadger," a "carrier," an itinerant dealer that
travels with horse and cart, apparently from "to
cadge," which some believe to be related to "to
catch." But "codger" may also come from a different
source, having the meaning "testy, crusty old fellow."
However, in some earlier literature it refers to
"pedlar," "tramp" or "beggar" as well, so there may at
least be some convergence with "cadger" at least.
Could "gadgie" have fed into it as well?

And then there is "geezer" (~ "geeser" ~ "guyser") for
a man (nowadays usually an old man), which is believed
to be related to "guiser," namely a mummer or
masquerader. What might the semantic significance of
this be? A scary-looking guy? A fright? Its earliest
appearance in writing in the sense of "mummer" is in
15th-century Scots: Item, in Lannerik, to dansaris and
gysaris, xxxvis (1488).
As for the word group "widow," I used to assume that
it can still be analyzed as a compound, in part
because in Low Saxon we say Wittfro ~ Wittfru ~ Wetfro
~ Wetfru etc., thus wit-woman. (Middle Saxon still had
weduwe and wedewe, though.) However, this appears to
be a very old word in toto. Sanskrit already has
विधव&
#2366; vidhavจก for
"widow'! Sanskrit विध् vidh
means 'lacking' or 'destitute', thus 'bereft', which
is related to Latin dจฉvidere 'divide' and viduus
'void', 'bereft', 'widowed' (fem. vidua). And then
there are Old Prussian (Baltic) widdewu, Old Slavonic
*งำง๎งีงเงำงั vĭdova (> Russian งำงีงเงำงั
vdova), Welsh (Celtic) gweddw, Cornish (Celtic)
guedeu, Old Irish (Celtic) fedb, all for 'widow'. So
you can't etymologize this word within Germanic,
because it's older than the group.

I assume that weew is a contraction of *wedewe.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lowlands-l/attachments/20080131/cf6f5388/attachment.htm>