LL-L "Etymology" 2012.09.03 (01) [EN]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L - 03 September 2012 - Volume 01
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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Etymology

Hi, Lowlanders!

I am confident I am not the first person that wonders and has a hunch about
the origin of the Scots word *haggis*.

Just briefly for those of you that are not yet familiar with it, a
*haggis*(the word also being used in English) is a savory pudding,
basically
consisting of mixed offal and oatmeal cooked in an animal's stomach.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haggis

The oldest known version of the word is *hagese'*:
*For hagese'.* *Þe hert of schepe, þe nere þou take,**Þo bowel noght þou
shalle forsake,* *On þe turbilen made, and boyled wele,**Hacke alle togeder
with gode persole,* I wonder if the word is related to he Scots verb
*hag*'to hack', 'to chop'. (and its nominal derivation
*hagger* 'someone that chops clumsily').

Is this word "Germanically" related to *hack*, which is used in Scots also?

It has been suggested that *haggis* (< *hagise'*) goes back to the Norman
non-palatalized equivalent of French *hachis* 'something chopped" (e.g.
English "hash"). If this were correct, would we then not also have to
assume that the Scots verb *hag* is Norman-derived?

Clarissa Dickson Wright claims that it "came to Scotland in a longship [ie.
from Scandinavia] even before Scotland was a single nation." Dickson-Wright
further cites etymologist Walter William Skeat as further suggestion of
possible Scandinavian origins: Skeat claimed that the *hag–* element of the
word is derived from the Old Norse *haggw* or the Old Icelandic
*hoggva*<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haggis#cite_note-7>(
*höggva* in modern Icelandic<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haggis#cite_note-8>),
meaning 'to hew' or strike with a sharp weapon, relating to the chopped-up
contents of the dish. One theory claims that the name "haggis" is derived
from Norman French. Norman French was more guttural than modern French so
that the "ch" of "hachis", i.e. "chopped", was pronounced as the "ch" in
"loch", giving "haggis". This conjecture, however, is discredited by
the *Oxford
English Dictionary*.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haggis]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haggis#cite_note-9>

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
Seattle, USA

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