LL-L "Etymology" 2009.07.01 (06) [EN]

[Lowlands-L List]

===========================================
L O W L A N D S - L - 01 July 2009 - Volume 06
lowlands at lowlands-l.net - http://lowlands-l.net/
Encoding: Unicode (UTF-08)
Language Codes: lowlands-l.net/codes.php
===========================================

From: Hellinckx Luc <luc.hellinckx at gmail.com>
Subject: LL-L "Etymology"

Beste Paul,


 Well folks, you've all certainly given me plenty to think about there, many
> thanks for that. It sounds like a word that could originally have been used
> in a variety of senses in different area, but they all got shoe-horned
> together at some stage.  The Lowlands web is tangled indeed!
>


Will entangle it some more, if you like *s*.

The French word "maquerau" means "pimp", a person who acts as a middleman
between (usually) a girl and her client. A matchmaker, who probably would
like you to believe he's your mucker.

Maquerau ~ maquerale (Namur dialect) < through metathesis from Older Flemish
makelare ~ Makler (G)

Coastal distribution could mean that "makker" is a term that sailors picked
up in French, even Flemish, Brabantish or Dutch ports where prostitution may
have been in French hands. A similar, but equally obscure story exists for
mackerel, the fish who was believed to be a matchmaker for herring.

To complicate matters even more, there's Old Dutch "makkeri", name for a
bricklayer. In 1180, in Latinized spelling, "Odacker Machara" has been
attested as name for "Odoaker the Mason".

Kind greetings,

Luc Hellinckx

•

==============================END===================================

 * Please submit postings to lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org.

 * Postings will be displayed unedited in digest form.

 * Please display only the relevant parts of quotes in your replies.

 * Commands for automated functions (including "signoff lowlands-l")

   are to be sent to listserv at listserv.linguistlist.org or at

   http://linguistlist.org/subscribing/sub-lowlands-l.html.

*********************************************************************
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lowlands-l/attachments/20090701/0fa6edd6/attachment.htm>