LL-L "Etymology" 2009.08.23 (05) [EN]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 23 August 2009 - Volume 05
lowlands at lowlands-l.net - http://lowlands-l.net/
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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Etymology

Lowlanders,

Niek Berendsen's translation of the Wren story (
http://lowlands-l.net/anniversary/grunnegers2.php) reminded me of an
interesting French loanword in Low Saxon.

French *tranquille *means (<) 'tranquil', 'calm', 'quiet' and so forth. In
Low Saxon, *trankiel*, and at the Lower Elbe for some reason *strankiel*,
has been semantically specialized to mean something like the opposite of
'nervous', 'fearful' or 'timid'. So it means something like 'unperturbed',
'unafraid', 'unflustered', all with the connotation of courage or *chutzpa*.


Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
Seattle, USA

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