LL-L "Etymology" 2009.04.08 (09) [E/French]

[Lowlands-L List]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 08 April 2009 - Volume 09
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From: Hellinckx Luc <luc.hellinckx at gmail.com>
Subject: LL-L "Literature"

Beste Ron,



You wrote:


 Upon "popular" demand, and now that, happily, the lovely Shetland Islands
are being mentioned again, I am reposting a link to a terrific video clip of
the Shetland Norn ballad *Hildinakvadet* from Foula, 1774:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TXrn0xoOcE

The ballad is sung, and the Norn text is shown with English translations.



On the Youtube-site, there's an interesting remark about the Icelandic word
"feigur", being prepared to die, quite a crucial word for Vikings I believe,
not in the least because Germanic ethics traditionally viewed "being a
coward" as worse than evil.



Danish has "fej", German "feige" and Dutch "veeg", all with approximately
the same meaning that goes back to a more original one, "excitement that one
shows when he is prepared/doomed to die, moribund". By the way, modern
English didn't inherit the word (fatality >< religion?), but Scottish
preserved it: fey (having foresight, second sight on things to come).



These meanings are all quite predictable, but what puzzles me is the meaning
of "vijg" in Flemish and Brabantish: simply "evil". "Ön vaëg" (B) denotes a
person who is truly a ragamuffin, a no-good, a criminal, but it can also be
said of material objects that don't quite "behave" as they should.



All I could find is that this may go back to "vijg" (Latin ficus carica, a
fig) as another word for "poison". I guess the fig tree itself cannot be
held responsible for so much negativity, but did come across a more symbolic
meaning of "fig": ulcer, tumor (small step to "poison", "no-good"). Maybe
the shape of the fig itself lended itself to this newer meaning, am not
sure. French has the same semantics, but the other Roman languages sharply
differ, both Italian, Spanish and Portuguese associate a fig, with the very
"essence" of a woman, una fica/figa = a vulva (and also by extension a
derogatory term for woman in Italian).



Let me just give you an extract of a French etymological dictionary
(regarding "figue"):



*Douce, Illustrations of Shakspeare and of ancient manners, Londres, 1839,
p. 302307, pense que l'origine de la locution faire la figue, n'est pas dans
la vengeance prise par Frédéric Barberousse du Milanais, et qu'il faut y
voir non figue, mais fic, sorte d'ulcère. La forme du mot s'oppose à cette
dérivation : c'est en français figue et non pas fi, fica en italien et non
pas fico, higa en espagnol et non pas higo. Mais une autre difficulté
s'élève : est-ce bien la figue qui est dans la locution. J'ignore si le
récit relatif à la figue, à Frédéric Barberousse et aux Milanais est
authentique ; en tout cas, dès le XIIIe siècle, les figues et les Milanais
étaient réunis dans l'opinion commune, témoin ces vers d'un troubadour,
Raimond de Miraval, cité par Raynouard : Preno'l sordeis c'avian soanat,
Aissi com fes lo Lombart de la figuas (Prennent la souillure qu'ils avaient
méprisée, ainsi comme le Lombard fit des figues). Le français aussi, dans le
XIIIe siècle, voit une figue dans la locution : " Cil prince nous ont fet la
figue. **" De ce côté-ci des Alpes, la figue est en jeu. Mais la chose
devient douteuse en Italie, en Espagne et en Portugal. L'italien dit fica :
far le fiche, le castagne, faire la figue, la nique ; et le sens propre de
fica est la nature de la femme ; le plus ancien exemple italien de la
locution est du maître de Dante, Brunetto Latini, qui, dans son Tesoretto,
p. 84, dit : Credes i far la croce, Ma el ti fa la fica. **Dans un texte de
pays italien, Du Cange a ficham facere ; on remarquera que le mot est écrit
par une h, ficha. **L'espagnol dit : hacer la higa ; higa, en cette langue,
signifie amulette. **Le portugais a dar figas, faire la figue ; figa, ici
aussi, signifie amulette. En regard de ces formes, il devient douteux que
fica, higa, figa soient le même mot que l'ital. fico, s. m. figue, l'espagn.
higo, s. m. et le portug. figo, masculin aussi. Il semble donc que fica,
higa, figa sont les mêmes que le franç. fiche, et le prov. fica, piqûre,
appui, se rattachant au lat. figere ; de là on déduit sans peine le sens
d'amulette, chose fichée, appendue ; avec plus de difficulté le sens italien
de nature de la femme. De la sorte, far la fica, ficham facere serait un
geste de maléfice. Mais alors que reste-t-il de la figue et de l'histoire de
Frédéric Barberousse et des Milanais ?*



 See the connection with "amulet"? Come full circle???



Not so, according to Grimm, who seems to admit that both words did influence
each other (feige, coward and Feige the fruit), but are essentially
different. If one looks at the different meanings of the adjective within
German, one is tempted though to assume a more general meaning in a very
distant past.



In any case, I'd like to find out if (and how) "woman", "evil" and
"cowardice" could possibly be connected. Actually I'd rather hope, these
semantic fields are not connected, but I wouldn't be surprised if ancient
folklore sees this differently.



And...because Easter is near, I'd like to end with the Dutch expression:



"Het zijn vijgen na Pasen"



said when something comes too late. Among catholics, a period of fasting had
to be respected before Easter. During this time, one had to stick to a list
of food items that were allowed to be eaten, figs were OK and contained
quite a lot of sugar, so they were readily eaten. After Easter, (rich)
people were pretty much "fed up" eating old dried figs as they could again
sample fresh stuff. So at that time they reconsidered figs as "ersatz" food,
fruit that is kind of pointless being eaten after Easter...*s*



Kind greetings,



Luc Hellinckx



PS: More info about "not giving a fig", "showing a fig" and "the evil eye"
here: http://tinyurl.com/cuubca

PPS: I remember Desmond Morris writing about the biological origin of
"gestures", but would like to know if ever the geographic distribution of
these was studied.



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

Subject: Etymology

Luc,

In English, "fey" is dialectical (mostly northern) and archaic, from Old
English *f**ǽgi*.

The basic meaning, common to all cognates, seems to be "timid".

In English, one of the semantic extensions seems to be "timid" > "shy" >
"coy", "elusive" > "like a fairy".

You find this for instance in the American folksong "Polly-Wolly Doodle":



Fare thee well, fare thee well, fare thee well, my fairy *fey*.
For I'm going to Lou'siana, for to see my Susianna,
Singing Polly-Wolly Doodle all the day.



Apparently the adjective here follows the noun, as in "Mother dear".

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
Seattle, USA

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