LL-L "Etymology" 2011.02.16 (04) [EN]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 16 February 2011 - Volume 04
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From: Mike Morgan <mwmbombay at gmail.com>
Subject: LL-L "Lexicon" 2011.02.16 (03) [EN]

 Funny how one word can send you back....

In his mail Luc mention the Dutch ransel (cf German Ranzen)...

As it is also found in the Scandinavian Germanic languages (Danish,
Norwegian, Swedish, Ruotsi), and as we have the -el (vs High German -en, cf.
Hansel and Gretel vs Hansen and Gretchen) ending, this is clearly a Lowlands
(Low Germanic) form. ...

Anyway, my comment (and trip down memory lane) is how this word has
traveled. Its occurrence in Bahasa Indonesia (buy NOT in Bahasa Malaysia as
far as I know), is to be expected, given the Dutch colonization of
Indonesia...

I am not sure of any other Asian languages it has fouod its way into, BUT it
IS also found in Japanese: *ランドセル* /randoseru/.

This is the name of the (VERY EXPENSIVE!) leather school bags (typically
black for boys and red for girls) that kids must have (by social pressure
when not by actual school rule) for elementary through middle school (I am
not sure about high school, as our son had the good sense to rebel and
dropped out of school in 2nd year of junior high school ... to then be sent
to a boarding school in California co-founded by J Krishnamurti ... talk
abotu culture shock!)

Although the Japanese were colonizers (or liberators, depending on your
version of history) of Indonesia immediately after the Dutch, and they COULD
have picked the word up then... except I believe it is much older in
Japanese than the 1940s, in fact going back to the late 19th century ...

So maybe it goes back to the old Dutch medical bag?? ... as western medicine
was intorduced into Japan as part of 蘭学 /rangaku/ literally "Dutch Studies"
(the introduction of western science into Japan from the Dutch at Dejima
(off Nagasaki) during the time when Japan was a closed country under the
shoguns) ... the /ran/ is from the middle kanji (which by itself means
'orchid') used to transliterate the word (H)olland 阿蘭陀 /oranda/).

ANYWAY, does anyone know if an old-fashioned black leather medical bag in
17th-18th century Dutch would have been referred to as a ransel?



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

When I was a kid, speaking about a satchel, we always used the term "kabas"
(Ranzen (G), also ransel in some Dutch dialects)

Luc Hellinckx, Halle, Belgium



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