LL-L "Etymology" 2009.03.18 (05) [A/E]

[Lowlands-L List]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 18 March 2009 - Volume 05
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From: Wolfram Antepohl <wolfram at antepohl.se>

Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2009.03.18 (01) [A/E]

Ron, let me bring in all my authority as a physician (Of course you would
trust a doctor?): You're completely right - the German workd "Achsel" mean
shoulder. Look at words like "Achselzucken" (difficult to do that with your
armpits). The same is true for all Scandinavian languages (as pointed out
earlier). I think confusion is due to medical terminology, where we even use
latin "axilla" - armpit. It's difficult to keep those two words and their
meanings apart - even for doctors.



Greetings



Wolfram



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

Yes, Paul, as I like to remind people once in a while, it seems to boil down
to a small number of root words, in Indo-European alone (not to speak of
earlier, larger connections, which I am pretty sure there are).

By the way, I feel dubious about German *Achsel* as ‘armpit’. I have a
feeling that earlier it denoted the shoulder joint (as probably did its
cognates in other languages). I’m saying this because dialectically it
competes with *Achselhöhle*, thus the “hollow” of the *Achsel*. Also,
there’s the derivative *Achselband* for a strap to hold a sleeveless garment
up from the shoulder (e.g. a spaghetti strap). Does anyone know more about
this?

(By the way, Paul, “axle” > “shoulder joint” seems to be the connection, and
that goes back to **aks-* *” pivot”, apparently to IE **ag-* ‘to pivot’, the
*-s-* nominalizing as in **reg-* ‘to rule’ > **reg-s* > Latin *rex* ‘ruler’,
‘king’; and “axle” is a diminutive form (**ag-s-l*).)

Also, what’s the Low Saxon (of Germany) for the same thing? I can only come
up with *Schuller* (“shoulder”) for the shoulder joint and *ünner’n
Arm*(“under the arm”) or
*Ünnerarm* (“under-arm”) for the armpit (as in English “under-arm
deodorant”).

Cheerio!
Reinhard/Ron
Seattle, USA



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From: Hellinckx Luc <luc.hellinckx at gmail.com>

Subject: LL-L "Etymology"



Beste Elsie,



You wrote:



>     Na aanleiding vn Luc se possie oor die oksel agter die knie, in
Afrikaans noem ons dit die 'waai'.

>

>     "Jahja" lyk my ook 'n ekker woord daarvoor!

>

>     Afrikaansprekendes se oksel word ook 'kieliebakkie' genoem.

>

>     Ek sluit in 'n prettige artikel van Cecile Celliers wat op 11 Maart in
Die Beeld verskyn het.

>

>     Groete,

>     Elsie Zinsser

>

>     Beeld-deurloop: Hoeveelste woord moet waai?

>     Mar 11 2009 06:29:52:427PM  - (SA)

>

>     De Boinod fokus veral op die eienaardighede, die verskille in die tale
wat ons praat en op amusante woorde in die verskillende tale. Afrikaans kom
ook etlike kere in die boek voor – die interessantste voorbeeld is
waarskynlik die woord “waai”, vir die agterkant van die knie, wat glo net in
een ander taal ter wêreld voorkom, in die Australiese
Aborigine-Wagiman-taal, waar die ekwivalent jahja is.



Nice article. To my knowledge there is indeed no good translation in English
for Dutch/Afrikaans "hoeveelste". There is a good reply though if you don't
know the answer...the umpteenth one *s*.

"Waai" on the other hand, is not as unique as you may think, it's known in
German (and other Dutch dialects) as: Wade, usually denoting the calf of a
person's leg. In Brabantish we call it "braai", but use it mostly in plural
"braaien" ('k em ne schup tegen majn bråån g'ad...somebody kicked my
calves).

Which reminds me of a nice word we use in Brabantish for "groin":
uëgnissen... ~ Latin "inguen", but pretty old already, Kiliaan registered it
in the 16th century.



A good article about all the different words that are used in Brabantish to
describe the back of a person's knee can be read here:



http://tinyurl.com/cta2u7



There's also a "huk" in the expression we use for "to squat": "op uw hukske
zitten"=...related with "oksel"? Anyway, it's probably not cognate with
Standard Dutch "hurken".



Kind greetings,



Luc Hellinckx

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