Addition: "Possible Meaning Of Schicklgruber"
After I published the article, I came across an additional meaning for "gruber" in Bavarian dialect, especially in the area where the Schicklgrubers lived; that is, "a person who lives by a well." Perhaps from the notion that the person had dug the well. In the original article, I did note that that the name could have been used for a person who dug irrigation ditches for agriculture or even wells. For the original article: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2012/07/possible-meaning-of-schicklgruber.html
WORD HISTORY:
Reeve-English actually has a couple of words "reeve," but this is the one now more common as a family name," as it meant "a local official," and it is really the same word as the second part of "sheriff." This official had varying responsibilities through the times. Its origin is not exactly certain, and not everyone agrees with this history, but it "seems" to go back to Indo European "gerbh," which meant "to carve or scratch out." This gave Greek "graphein" which meant "to write or draw." This then produced Greek "grapheus," "a scribe, a writer." If correct, it appears then that Germanic borrowed the term as "grafa," with a long "a" sound, and with the connotation of "an official," as people who could write were important back then, and this official had much to do with records or record keeping. This then gave Anglo-Saxon (Old English) "gerefa," then shortened to "refa," which then became "reeve." There are or were numerous similar words with similar meanings in the other Germanic languages, although it seems they trace to West Germanic (English is West Germanic). German has "Graf" ("a count," noble title, Low German Saxon has both "Grääf" and "Graaf," with the same meaning, Dutch has "graaf" ("a count"), Frisian, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish have "greve," also with the same general meaning. I did not find a similar term in Icelandic, but I did not spend a lot of time searching, and they might have used a similar term which has now died out or which is little used in modern times.
WORD HISTORY:
Reeve-English actually has a couple of words "reeve," but this is the one now more common as a family name," as it meant "a local official," and it is really the same word as the second part of "sheriff." This official had varying responsibilities through the times. Its origin is not exactly certain, and not everyone agrees with this history, but it "seems" to go back to Indo European "gerbh," which meant "to carve or scratch out." This gave Greek "graphein" which meant "to write or draw." This then produced Greek "grapheus," "a scribe, a writer." If correct, it appears then that Germanic borrowed the term as "grafa," with a long "a" sound, and with the connotation of "an official," as people who could write were important back then, and this official had much to do with records or record keeping. This then gave Anglo-Saxon (Old English) "gerefa," then shortened to "refa," which then became "reeve." There are or were numerous similar words with similar meanings in the other Germanic languages, although it seems they trace to West Germanic (English is West Germanic). German has "Graf" ("a count," noble title, Low German Saxon has both "Grääf" and "Graaf," with the same meaning, Dutch has "graaf" ("a count"), Frisian, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish have "greve," also with the same general meaning. I did not find a similar term in Icelandic, but I did not spend a lot of time searching, and they might have used a similar term which has now died out or which is little used in modern times.
Labels: Bavarian Dialect, English, etymology, Germanic languages, Greek, Hitler
posted by Randy at 10:36 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home