LL-L "Etymology" 2010.01.03 (05) [EN]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 03 January 2010 - Volume 05
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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
 Subject: Etymology

I wrote in response to Roger's "Delectables" posting about lettuce.

   - Low Saxon *Salaad* and (Northern) German *Salat* mean both 'lettuce'
   and 'salad', too. Obviously this is why many Dutch and German speakers say
   "salad" instead of "lettuce" in English.

I've been digging around some more and now believe that all of this goes
back to what is now Southern Belgium.

I am pretty sure it was Walloon or a closely related northern *oïl *language
(most likely Picard) that started labeling lettuce as *salåde *("salad"),
probably because it was the default ingredient for salads as its speakers
understood it at a certain time (though in earlier times salad must have
consisted of salt-pickled ingredients, going by the name). So, I suspect the
Walloon word came to adopted in Eastern Flemish or Brabantish (or the Picard
equivalent got adopted by Western Flemish). It seems predictable that the
Romance word *salåde* [saˈlɔːdə] > [saˈlɔːd] would become *[saˈlɔːdə] >
*[saˈlɔːjə] > *[saˈlɔːjə] > *[saˈlɔːj]> > *[səˈlɔːj] (cf. Afrikaans *slaai*)
and eventually [slɔː] in Southern Dutch and , moving northward, that this
would come to be pronounced [slaː] in Northern Dutch. And so we have the
Dutch word *sla* for 'lettuce', and the French word *salade* came to denote
'salad' in Dutch. I have a feeling that this spread eastward into what is
now Northern Germany, where *Salat* has come to mean both 'lettuce' and
'salad'. (Differences can be made if necessary, such as *Kopfsalat* for
lettuce.) A similar thing happened in Low Saxon. In extension, you get
Yiddish *salat* (סאַלאַט), Danish and Norwegian *salat*, Swedish *sallad*,
Polish *sałata*, Lower Sorbian *salat*, Upper Sorbian *solotej*, Czech *
salát*, Slovak *šalát*, Slovenian *solate*, Lithuanian *salota*, Latvian *
salāti*, Estonian *salat*, Finnish *salaatti*, etc., all meaning 'lettuce' (
*Lactuca sativa*).

(Southern?) Dutch *sla* then engendered (American?) English *slaw*.

English borrowed 'lettuce' from Romance, namely from Anglo-Norman
*letuse*(cf. e.g. French
*laituë* > *laitue*, Castilian *lechuga*, Galician *leituga*, Italian *
lattuga*, etc., all going back to Latin *lactūca*, based on *lact-* 'milk'
because of the plant's milky juice.

And apparently derived from it there is German *Lattich* for the entire *
Lactuca* genus.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
Seattle, USA

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