The German Question, Part Thirty-Four

"The End of the Old German Empire" Part Two

There was a series of wars from the 1790s into the early 1800s between various German states and France, along with changing numbers of allies for both sides. Each of these wars is a subject in its own right, and the wars are far too complicated to deal with here. Initially in the early 1790s, the French were under the Revolutionary Government, and then, from 1799, under Napoleon. Austria tended to be the main German state to take the lead against the French, at times with the support of Prussia. The French Revolution stirred strong emotions in differing segments of the German population (and other European populations), with some Germans seeing the French as potential "liberators" from their own princes, who were hereditary rulers. The upper classes and the nobility naturally opposed the French Revolution, and indeed they were terrified of any chance that it might spread to their own territories. Interestingly, Bavaria, after being occupied by Austria, which created resentment, decided to cast its lot with France, although this was not during the revolutionary period, but when Napoleon ruled. So not all German states always joined the alliances against France during this time period.

By 1803, Napoleon had inflicted major defeats upon his German opponents (mainly Austria), and France not only controlled, but annexed all German territory west of the Rhine River. Napoleon essentially forced the Reichstag; that is, the parliament of the German Empire (Holy Roman Empire), along with the support of the Habsburgs, to redraw the boundaries of the many German states, abolishing some, thus enlarging others. Whether intended or not, this helped move the Germans toward true unification as a modern nation, since an expeditious consolidation of the many hundreds of individual states had been something Germans themselves had not been able to do, although the number of states had dropped since the mid 1600s.*

In 1805, Napoleon defeated the Austrians once again, occupied Vienna, took the German territory of Tirol (a Habsburg possession), and forced the German emperor, Franz II (a Habsburg),** to dissolve the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation in the summer of 1806. Thus ended one thousand years of this historic empire, but the seeds of German revival and unification were now sown. (A Word History is below the notes)

* If you have been following this series, remember, the actual "empire" was not a particularly strong entity, especially after the Thirty Years' War, and German states were thereafter pretty much like independent countries under the umbrella of the "empire," which was led by the Habsburg family of Austria. The empire had no permanent professional army of its own (also known as a standing army). The rulers of the multitude of German states would provide military assistance in answer to an appeal by the emperor, something that often was contingent upon how persuasive any given emperor was, especially later. As centuries passed and as the emperor's clout declined, the individual rulers of the German states became less inclined to send troops, unless they were in some way motivated by a given issue at any given time. Because a Habsburg was always elected emperor, the Habsburg's own troops came to form the most reliable element to support the Old German Empire. 

** To confuse things, German Emperor Franz II had declared Austria as the "Austrian Empire" in 1804, two years before he dissolved the German Empire. As Austrian Emperor (Kaiser von Österreich, in German) he was therefore known as Franz I. Austria had long been an Archduchy. 

WORD HISTORY:
Reich-This word traces back to Indo European "reg" (I "believe" pronounced more like our word "reek," or perhaps as "reeg") which meant "to move in a straight line," and then also, "to direct straight away, to lead, to rule." It is closely related to "rich" and "reach," and indeed German uses "reich" (in this case with a small "r") as its word for both of those words. Linguists are a bit divided, but some believe Germanic acquired a form of "reich" from Celtic, which, like Germanic, is a branch of Indo European, although it might be just as possible that Celtic acquired their word from Germanic. Whatever the case, Old Germanic had "rikja/rikjan," meaning "rule, authority," which then gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "rice," not pronounced like the grain, but similar to "rike-eh." This meant "realm, power of a ruler, particularly a king;" thus, "kingdom." It later became "rike" and "riche," in English. The Old High German (the direct ancestor of modern German) form was "richi/rihhi," eventually developing into modern "reich" and "Reich." The capitalized form (all German nouns are capitalized) means "empire, realm" in German, and the "empire" meaning did not truly develop in the English word, although the similar idea of "kingdom" did, and English borrowed the "empire" meaning from Old High German, which then was replaced when "empire" was borrowed. The spelling "Reich" also came from German later.

The German Question, Part Thirty-three

"The End Of The Old German Empire" Part One

The rickety old Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, not really much of an empire since the end of Thirty Years' War, was still dominated by the Habsburgs, when a little man from the island of Corsica* became the leader of France in the aftermath of the French Revolution. That man was Napoleon Bonaparte.

Prior to Napoleon, the empire had given both the Netherlands and Switzerland their independence, costing the empire huge chunks of territory and population, as we already learned in an earlier segment.** Over a period of more than a century, beginning in the mid 1500s, the French began to chip away at the territories of Alsace and Lorraine (Elsass and Lothringen, in German), taking control of more and more of these lands of the German Empire. Alsace was very heavily German in background, including its language, with a fairly small portion being French in character, but Lorraine was a bit more evenly split, with a large area being truly French in character and language.*** By 1700, the French essentially controlled both of these provinces.

The German emperor was greatly weakened after the Thirty Years' War, since the individual German states became much more like separate nations in the war's aftermath, and these states remained purely under a loose umbrella type of association with the empire, which truly lacked a central government organization. (A Word History is below the notes)

* Corsica is an island located some 100+ miles southeast of the French coast (at its nearest point), about 60 miles west of the mainland northwestern Italian coast and about 7 or so miles north of the Italian island of Sardinia. It was under the control of Genoa (before Italy was united as a modern nation) for a few hundred years before a brief period of independence, followed by a takeover by France in the 1760s. The ethnic composition of the island was varied in those times, as many peoples traipsed across the island at one time or another, but "likely" the population was more tilted to Italian than any other one group, and Italian and a Corsican dialect/language (closely related to Italian) prevailed as the languages on the island until French was strongly pushed by France, whereupon it became the dominant language during the mid 1800s, as it remains to this day.    

** I just want to note that the southern area of the "old" Netherlands (prior to the independence of the northern area) was not granted freedom by the ruling (and owning) Habsburgs, and was called "The Austrian Netherlands." The area was approximately 60% Flemish speaking (a Germanic language, closely akin to Dutch and some Low German dialects; and in fact, some linguists classify it as a dialect of Dutch and others classify it simply as Dutch) and 40% French speaking. This general area, which is not so much a part of our story, eventually became modern Belgium.

*** The German dialects in Alsace trace back to the Alemanns, a Germanic tribe. Interestingly, the French use their forms for the Alemanns as their words for Germany, "Allemagne," and for German, "Allemand." The German dialects of the German speaking part of Lorraine trace back to the Franks, another Germanic tribe, and the words "France" and "French" both come from the Franks.

WORD HISTORY:
Tribe-This seems to go back to the Indo European roots "trei" and "bhu." The first is the root of "three," and indeed linguists seem to believe that it was used to signify the division of Rome into "three" parts. The second root, "bhu," is the root of "be." This compound gave Latin "tribus," which denoted the "divisions of the people into groups," which then gave Old French "tribu." It was borrowed into English from French in the 1200s, often initially with reference to the biblical "twelve tribes of Israel."

The German Question, Part Twenty-Five

"The Thirty Years' War Brings Death, Destruction & A Partial Answer To The German Question," Part Three-"Results"

The generally accepted idea is, the Thirty Years' War ended in 1648 with what is known as "The Peace of Westphalia," which included two treaties negotiated in the German cities of Osnabrück and Münster, both in the German state of Westphalia (Westfalen, in German). Other treaties were negotiated elsewhere, as the war was truly a major European conflict, involving most European nations in some way.

The casualties were absolutely devastating, as they included civilians by the droves. While no true casualty figures can be certified, historians have attempted to piece together records from various sources, and with these records to at least give us some idea of how horrible things were. Some German states seem to have suffered perhaps as much as the loss of two-thirds to three-quarters of their population, although whether all died is uncertain, as many people fled to other areas. Since many foreign soldiers were present in German lands, including a good number of foreign mercenaries, they had to survive somehow, and that usually meant taking food and provisions from the local population, leaving the civilians with little or nothing to survive on themselves. The religious nature of the war caused expulsion of large segments of the civilian population in certain areas where forces of the opposing religion took over. So thoroughly were some villages and towns pillaged and the population decimated, that for all practical purposes, they were wiped out. Thousands of such villages and small towns can be counted in this category. The incoming soldiers from various areas, even within the German lands themselves, and the refugees fleeing their own locales, helped to spread disease, which also seems to have taken a high toll on both the military forces and civilians. All in all, it was a catastrophe!

The political results were many, but the main ones were:

-The Netherlands received full independence from the German (Holy Roman) Empire, and thus it is an independent country to this day. Since those times, and for some a bit before, no Dutchman, no matter how closely related to Germans, would EVER declare themselves to be German.

-Switzerland gained full independence from the German (Holy Roman) Empire. I can only write here what I've seen and heard on this, but some, or perhaps many, Swiss Germans may have still called themselves "German," in sort of a generic, linguistic and cultural sense, but not in any "national" sense. Certainly by the time Hitler came along, that undoubtedly changed forever, as the Swiss "Germans" knew a nutcase when they saw it, and they distanced themselves, figuratively speaking.

-The above two items give us a partial answer to our question "Who/What is a German."

-While the other German states remained under the "umbrella" of the Empire, they were all given much more independence and with more clearly defined borders, making the title of "German emperor" mainly symbolic. This was a blow to the Habsburgs and to the Roman Catholic Church.

-While there had been something of a "north-south" split in the German lands for quite some time, if for no other reason than the vastly different dialects dividing the north and south, now religion also tended to play a part, too, as much of the south remained Catholic, and much of the north was, or became, Protestant. Note that I say "much," because there were exceptions. Just to point out some things, Bavaria and Austria both shared a common dialect, "Bavarian," (now called "Austro-Bavarian") and pretty solid Catholicism. Both are southern German lands. Prussia, a northern state, and Lower Saxony, also northern, shared Protestantism, and somewhat similar dialects, mainly, but not always, based on Low German. These kinds of things tended to make allies of these states (and like-minded states) against the others in future political and military matters. The key word is "tended," because nothing was totally certain in the turbulent world of German affairs.

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                                           WORD HISTORY: 

Treaty-This goes back to the Indo European base "tragh," which had the notion of "pull, drag, move." This gave the Latin offshoot "tractare," and the thus derived "tractatus," which had the same notion of its Indo European ancestor, but also carried a further meaning by extension, if you move or drag something, you "handle it, deal with it." This carried on in Latin-based Old French, but as "traité," which meant "agreement/treaty" (something you've dealt with). This was borrowed into English during the 1300s, first as "tretee," before the modern spelling. By the 1400s, it had taken on the idea of "agreement between countries."

The German Question, Part Twenty-Four

"The Thirty Years' War Brings Death, Destruction & A Partial Answer To The German Question," Part Two-"The War"

Bohemia* was a part of the Holy Roman Empire, and in the latter part of the 1300s and early 1400s, a man named Jan (John, in English) Hus was a leader of a group of political and religious reformers. He was executed as a heretic, but his popularity brought together his followers in what eventually became more of a religious movement, and they were called "Hussites," and they became a Protestant sect which dominated Bohemia, much to the chagrin of the Church and of the Habsburgs, who were staunch Catholics, and emperors of the German Empire. The territory was ruled by the "King of Bohemia,"** but when one king, Louis II ("Lajos" in Hungarian, as he was also King of Hungary) was killed in battle against the Ottoman Turks in the 1500s, he left no son as an heir. His brother, Ferdinand, who was married to a Habsburg, became king, and thus Bohemia joined the growing possessions of the Habsburgs. While the Habsburgs were Catholic, there was a bit of a truce for decades, allowing freedom of religion until another Habsburg, German emperor Ferdinand II (and also King of Bohemia), wanted to establish Catholicism throughout his lands. This brought about a revolt in Bohemia in 1618.

The revolt in Bohemia triggered other religious conflicts within the Habsburg lands, including in certain parts of Austria, where Protestants were majorities. Certain Hungarian Protestants sought to aid the other Protestants, and later still, the Danes, staunch Lutherans, joined the military operations in northern Germany to aid the Protestant German state of Lower Saxony against advancing Imperial (Catholic) forces. Then later still, Sweden, another staunchly Protestant country, joined the action in the northern/northeastern part of Germany. One major exception to the religious reasons for the conflict was France. France was heavily Catholic, but the French hated and feared the Habsburgs, and they agreed to support Sweden financially, and then later, actually entered the military conflict by declaring war on Spain (ruled by a branch of the Habsburgs) and on the German Empire/Holy Roman Empire, which had a Catholic Habsburg as emperor. The war raged on, with Catholic armies gaining ground at times, and then Protestant armies retaking many lands. The French had a difficult time, suffering some terrible defeats, with Paris itself threatened at one time by Habsburg forces.

The Protestant forces and their French allies gradually turned the tide, inflicting some devastating defeats on the Catholic forces of the Habsburgs. Both sides were exhausted, and a series of treaties were negotiated between the various participants, but two major treaties, one signed in Osnabrück and one in Münster, two German cities in the province of Westphalia (Westfalen, in German), brought about the end of the Thirty Years' War and its companion war, the Eighty Years' War between Spain and the Dutch, which had essentially become one with the Thirty years' War. See: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2010/07/german-question-part-twenty.html

To be continued, as this will require a Part Three..... (A Word History is below the notes)

* For those unfamiliar with European geography, Bohemia later became the leading part of the new nation of Czechoslovakia after World War One. It now has a similar role in the "Czech Republic." In the time period involved in this article, while it undoubtedly had a Czech majority population (the Czechs are Slavs), it had a substantial German minority, mainly formed in a German majority populated sort of semi-circle around Bohemia, but Germans were also somewhat mixed in with the "interior" Czech population.

** The individual "states" within the German Empire (Holy Roman Empire) were more like independent "countries," with some being ruled by kings, princes, dukes, archdukes, etc. Further, it was not uncommon for some rulers to carry several titles, if they ruled a variety of states: for example, one German emperor, Rudolf, was designated "Rudolf II," as his title as emperor, but simply as "Rudolf," with no numeral, in his capacity as King of Hungary and Croatia, but again as "Rudolf II" as King of Bohemia, but as Rudolf V, in his capacity as Archduke of Austria. Initially, the ruler of Bohemia was called a "duke," but later it was changed to "king," then back to duke, before returning once again to king.

WORD HISTORY:
War-This seems to go back to the Indo European root "wers." This gave Old Germanic "werso," which seems to have meant "cause or bring into confusion," and probably also "mix," which would certainly tie in with "confusion." This gave Frankish (the Franks were a Germanic tribe) "werra," seemingly with the same basic meaning. This then passed into Old French as "guerre," but in the northern dialect of Old French as "werre," with the meaning "war" (Italian and Spanish, for example, also picked this up, but as "guerra," their word for "war"). Old English acquired the word from the northern French dialect at some point prior to the Norman Invasion as "werre/wyrre/warre," later being reduced to the shorter form "war." Interestingly, the Germanic dialects, including Anglo-Saxon, of long ago did not have a set word for "war," and English used a whole variety of forms, too numerous to get into, to express the notion of "war." Modern German has the related word (ver)wirren, which still has the meaning "confuse, bewilder," but also "tangle/entangle," which also adds the "mix" meaning.

The German Question, Part Twenty-Three

"The Thirty Years' War Brings Death, Destruction & A Partial Answer To The German Question," Part One-"The Lead Up To The War"

What I've noted so many times in this series, applies to this segment too; this is a very complex, but also a very important subject (the Thirty Years' War), and I am only going to deal with the very basics. As you can see above, I've given a subtitle to this subject, and then it will be broken into at least two parts.

Basically, the the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) was a religious war between Roman Catholics and Protestants (Lutherans and Calvinists), although there were other reasons, too, often defined by political goals of some of the antagonists. It became very extensive, involving many of the European nations of those times, with much of the heaviest fighting done in the German lands.

First, the German Empire (Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation) had been Christian; that is, with just one religion. When Luther and others (not only in the German Empire, but elsewhere in Europe) challenged some of the corruption, practices, and beliefs of the Christian rulers and system, this brought about Protestantism, from "protesters." Initially in the German lands, Lutheranism became quite popular, primarily in the northern areas. This now, for the first time, gave the empire two religions, but with the Catholic Habsburgs always as emperors. The Habsburgs (and other Catholics) didn't like the religious split, and at times tried to bring back Catholicism to the "errant" regions, like in the Low Countries, where we already covered religious strife, that then blended into the Thirty Years' War. (See Part 20) Lutherans refused to give up their new faith, and they continued to appeal to others to join them. With neither side willing to compromise, it was a disaster just waiting to happen.

John Calvin was born in France (real French name was "Jean Cauvin") and he also took up differences with Church leaders. France and its leaders remained staunchly loyal to the Church, and a backlash against Protestants caused Calvin to flee for his very life to Switzerland, then still a region of the German Empire (see Part 19). He and others in the region found fertile ground for spreading "Calvinism," as it came to be known, and it indeed spread to other areas of the empire, thus giving us three religions, and adding another element to the potential disaster.

Finally, in the mid 1500s, Emperor Karl V (Charles V), a Habsburg and a Catholic, agreed to terms that would abide by "cuius regio, eius religio," a Latin term that, fully defined, meant that the religion of the individual German princes, and NOT the religion of the emperor, determined the religion of their subjects.* So, for example, if I'm the Count of Cleveland, (hey, I had to make something up) and I've been Catholic, but I change to Lutheran, then all of my subjects must now become Lutheran too. Understand, it could be the reverse of that; Lutheran to Catholic. Subjects unwilling to change religion would be given time to move to an area where their religious preference prevailed. This whole situation weakened the already fairly weak position of German emperor,** while giving added strength to the individual states, which already were much like independent countries.

While the agreement helped cool things off for a time, no one was completely satisfied, and the Church wanted Catholic "princes" to take over Lutheran territories, thus making them Catholic again, and Lutheran rulers sought to extend their dominion over other territories (not only because of religion), sometimes Catholic, which then would have required those new subjects to change religion. There were numerous outbreaks of fighting between local rulers prior to the actual start of the Thirty Years' War, but the beginning of the disaster didn't occur until 1618.
To be continued.... (A Word History is below the notes)

* It always bears mentioning that "the German princes" was a collective term applied to the various local rulers in the empire, and it didn't necessarily mean that all carried the title of "prince," as some were kings, dukes, archdukes, counts, etc.

** The various Habsburg emperors over time were actually more important, not as emperors of the German Empire, but for the vast lands they owned and controlled within the empire, and sometimes outside of the empire.

WORD HISTORY:
Religion-This word "seems" to go back to the Indo European root "leig," which had the notion of "binding." The "re" prefix was simply an intensifier, with the basic meaning in Latin of "again," so if you do something "again," it is intensified, or solidified. The Latin offshoot was "religare," which meant "to bind tightly or hold fast." (Latin is an Indo European language related to English, but further down the family tree, although we have many words derived from Latin, many by way of French, a Latin-based language, due to the tremendous influence of the Romans.) This then gave Latin "religio," which meant "binding respect or reverence for the gods." When the Romans accepted Christianity, the term came to mean "monastic life and vows." (Of course "vows" imply "binding to certain ideas/beliefs.") "Religio" then gave Old French the word "religion," with the same "monastic" meaning. This was then taken to England by the Normans in the 11th Century and became Anglo-Norman "religiun." The idea of "monastic life and vows" developed further into "a set of religious beliefs," but while this meaning was present in English from the 1300s, it didn't completely become as common as we might think, until the 1500s!

The German Question, Part Twenty

"Going Dutch, The Move Toward Independence"

The history of what is now called "the Netherlands" (literally 'the Lowlands")* is extremely complicated, as it overlaps the history of Belgium, and Luxembourg, too. During certain periods of history, the area was  called, "The Low Countries." While most people probably think of both Belgium and the Netherlands as having been around for a long, long time, the actual separate political entities, as such, are not really all that old. It would take many articles to even try to explain in a fairly straight-forward way, even the basic history of this entire region. So I'm going to give just as brief a sketch as I feel is possible.

As was noted in earlier segments to this series, most of this general area was eventually settled by Germanic tribes, with the "Batavians" and "Frisians" being the most prominent, at first. Much of the far southern part of the area, what is now a part of Belgium, was settled long ago by a Celtic tribe, the Belgae, who gave their name to Belgium. The Romans later occupied much of the area, thus adding a bit of their genetic matter to the area of present-day Belgium. The Romans designated the Germanic speaking areas of the region as part of "Lower Germania." ** The Germanic tribe, the Franks, later conquered a substantial part of this general region. The modern Dutch language traces back to the Frankish dialects from those times (now called "Low Franconian" by linguists), although there is also Frisian influence (both Frankish and Frisian are West Germanic in origin, as are English and German), and even more, in the far northeastern area of the Netherlands to this day, Frisian is still spoken, more specifically, the West Frisian dialect.

With the establishment of the Holy Roman Empire, much of this general area was a part of that German dominated empire,*** and a couple of the German emperors were born in this region. As with other parts of the Holy Roman Empire, the various "states" enjoyed tremendous independence within the loose organization of the empire, and the local rulers more or less "owned" the territories, often selling off or adding to their properties. Wars, advantageous marriages, and wheeling-dealing changed boundaries of the various states on a regular basis, and it was no different in this area of the "Lowlands." The area was taken over by the House of Burgundy (of France) during the latter part of the 1300s and well into the 1400s. In the late 1400s, along came the Habsburgs, who took over the area, and they eventually proceeded to unify the region into one entity (that is Belgium and the Netherlands were combined as one political unit).**** Karl V (Charles V), the Habsburg ruler and German emperor, was born in this area (in Ghent). He granted a special autonomy in the mid 1500s to the region within the old German Empire (Holy Roman Empire), and declared that these various provinces could only be considered as one political unit.^ Karl was also involved with the House of Burgundy of France and granted separation of the region from France. (Hey, I told you this was complicated, and we're not done yet! Just to show you how complicated these monarchies could be, Karl V, in addition to being German emperor, was also "King of Italy" and "King of Spain!")

Now, Karl's son, Philip, was raised in Spain (became Philip II of Spain). He succeeded his father and this began a period when the Netherlands became part of the Spanish Empire! (See, I warned you we weren't done yet!) The Reformation brought Protestantism to a large part, but certainly not all, of the Lowlands. Philip was a devout Catholic and he sent Spanish torturers...I mean "Inquisitors," as well as an army, to the area. This was the beginning of what is termed "The 80 Years War" (Ah, I WON'T be covering all 80 years!). The Spanish and local Catholic forces essentially did well in the southern part of the region (now mainly Belgium, which is still Catholic to this day), but they encountered far more stubborn resistance in the northern areas (which is now the Netherlands, and is still essentially Protestant, but not exclusively so). What were mainly "Dutch Protestant" provinces united and issued a proclamation of independence from Spain, with William of Orange (Willem van Oranje, in Dutch) as their leader and first monarch.^^ The war continued, however, although on a somewhat smaller scale. Thousands of people in the Lowlands were executed and tortured, especially during the first couple of decades of this war. To confuse matters more, if that's possible, the "80 Years War" actually evolved into the more general European war known as "The Thirty Years War," which will be covered separately, along with the changes it brought. (A Word History is below the notes)

* In every day English we refer to the modern country as "Holland," and even the Dutch use this term at times. "Holland" is actually only a part of the western Netherlands, and in modern times, is divided into North Holland and South Holland. The term comes from "holt" (wood) + "land" ("land" is a word common to all of the Germanic languages), thus "woodland," or forested land. "Holt" was once also commonly used in English, but is now archaic, although in close relative, German, it is still commonly used as their general word for "wood," as "Holz." 

** "Lower Germania" consisted of much of modern Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and a part of western Germany (the general area around the city of Cologne, which was the capital of the entire region).

*** In those times, all of the Germanic speaking people in the area commonly referred to themselves as "Germans," and not what we think of as "Dutch," although the terms "Dutch" (in English), "Diets" (in Dutch), and "Deutsch" (in German) are all actually the same word, just variants of one another. By the way, the Dutch call their language "Nederlands."

**** The Habsburgs had risen to rule (own) much of modern day Austria, and parts of Switzerland, and Germany. They also were almost always elected as German emperors for hundreds of years. The thing to remember is, just as the other local German rulers owned their territories, the Habsburgs did also, and their positions as German emperors were separate from their own possessions.

^ The area actually also contained parts of modern France and Germany, but you have to remember, these provinces frequently had boundary changes, as I mentioned previously, and the sense of belonging to a specific nation had not yet developed in many areas.

^^ William/Willem was born near present day Giessen, in the German state of Hessen.

WORD HISTORY:
Wain-While not a common word on its own anymore (sometimes in poetry), it is part of the fairly common name "Wainwright." It goes back to Indo European root "wegh," which had the notion of, "movement, ride, travel;" thus also, "transport/carry." This produced the Old Germanic offshoot "wagnaz," which then gave Old English "waegn," which then lost the "g" sound and became "waen," and later still "wain." This meant "wagon" (sometimes spelled "waggon") and remained our word for "wagon" until the more modern form, WAGON, was borrowed from Dutch in the 1520s, probably as a result of the common trade association with the Dutch. "Wagon" is from the same source, and has the same history. German has "Wagen," as in "Volkswagen," Dutch has "wagon," and West Frisian, in a development much like its cousin, English with "wain," has "wein."

The German Question, Part Nineteen

The Swiss Move Toward Independence

Just a little information about the Swiss to start off: Modern Switzerland is some two-thirds German speaking, with the remainder being French, Italian, and Romansh speaking, in that order.* Like the other German areas of Europe, the Swiss speak a German dialect of their own, as well as standard German. Actually their dialect is diverse from region to region, and I'm not sure all varieties are mutually intelligible; that is, that people in one region can fully understand people from other areas. Standard German is the link for all of the Swiss, and is also their connection to other German speaking people in Europe. Now....

With so much of the area that became modern Switzerland being mountainous, some of the local communities banded together and cooperated in trade with one another, and in helping to secure the mountainous terrain in their vicinity. The German-dominated Holy Roman Empire gave these districts the special privilege of answering only to the emperor, with no princes or dukes involved in their rule. This circumstance, and their difficult geography, helped to foster a certain independence among these mountaineers. This all transpired in the period from the late 1200s into the 1400s. Gradually other mountain communities joined "The Swiss Confederation."**

Remember, if you've been following this series, the Holy Roman Empire, or Old German Empire, was not really a strong entity, and the individual states had much leeway in their own dealings. The Habsburg family coveted much of the territory of the Swiss Confederation, and they sought to take it by force at times. The Swiss and the Habsburgs fought a number of battles and wars over time, but initially, the German Emperor (from either the Hohenstaufen or Luxemburg families) supported the Swiss, maintaining their special relationship within the empire. When the Habsburg family took over as German emperors, they tried to use their position to further their own interests (not the empire's) with the Swiss and others. The Swiss were not pushovers, and they fought valiantly against the Habsburg forces, inflicting a decisive defeat on the Habsburgs in 1499, which resulted in the Habsburgs agreeing to the Swiss maintaining their independent position within the empire. It was only a matter of time before the Swiss would gain true independence.

* Romansch is a language of Latin derivation, descending from the Latin spoken by Roman soldiers and settlers during the period of the Roman Empire. It is closely related to the language of southern France, Monaco, and just over into the Italian Riviera, called Provencal.

** "Eidgenossenschaft" in German, which means roughly "Oath Membership," or "Confederation." (See "Word History") The "genosse(n)" part by itself means, "comrade, buddy," but also, "a member of some cooperative group." English once had the closely related "geneat," which also meant, "comrade, buddy," but which, during feudalism, took on the additional meaning, "vassal;" that is, "a tenant obligated by agreement to serve a lord." The German "ss" instead of the English "t" in the German word is due to a sound shift which came to dominate the high dialects where the "t" sound became "s" or "ss." For example, English has "vat" (originally spelled with an "f"), but German has "Fass;" English has "kettle," but German has "Kessel."  

WORD HISTORY:
Oath-This word has a "shaky" early history, but it "possibly" goes back to Indo European "oyet," which meant something like, "meaningful statement." "Apparent forms" are only in Celtic and Germanic, which makes me wonder if one or the other was the original source, as Germanic people and Celtic people had much contact and mingling long ago. ^ Old Germanic had "aithaz," which then gave Old English "ath," with a long "a" sound. By the Middle Ages it was "ooth" or "oth," before the modern version. The Germanic relatives of English all have similar words for "oath": German has "Eid," pronounced as if "it" with a long "i" sound, Low German has "eed," Dutch has "eed," Swedish, Norwegian and Danish all have "ed," and Icelandic has "eið" (=eith). West Frisian once used "eed," but from what I can tell, it is archaic, and in more modern times they use a form related to English "swear" (as in "swear a promise").

^ I say "apparent forms," because there are some "possible" relatives in other Indo European languages, but it is unclear if these forms are from the same source or coincidental, as the meanings vary and it is hard to make a connection as to how the varied meanings would have come about. 

The German Question, Part Nine

While the German-dominated Holy Roman Empire sounded impressive, in fact, it was basically a loose confederation of “states.” As the famous French writer and philosopher Voltaire noted, it was “neither holy, Roman, nor an empire.”* The rulers of some of the states** even took over lands, by agreement or warfare, outside the borders of the empire; thus establishing their own “little empires” beyond the reach of the German emperor, and the feudal structure of the empire. Often religion lay at the root of some of this expansion (of course "power" was undoubtedly the main driving force), as the Germans sought to “Christianize” people living east of the imperial boundaries, and these ventures into other territories were therefore, at times, supported by the emperor. Further, the old "Marches/Marks" (border areas) I wrote about in an earlier segment had been whittled away in places by non-German elements pressuring from the East. The emperor definitely wanted these areas restored to the empire. A fairly large part of eastern Europe was populated, although seemingly sparsely in many areas, by Slavic people of various names; the forerunners of modern Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Slovenes, Serbians, and Croatians. Also, to the northeast, were the Baltic people, the Prussians, Lithuanians, and Latvians, as well as the Estonians.***

The "Teutonic Knights" was an order established in the Middle East by Christians during the Crusades. Initially the knights were established to help and care for Christian pilgrims and soldiers, but they also provided "protection," and from this element, the order became a military force to be reckoned with. It moved from the Middle East to Europe, and eventually led "Crusades" into northern Europe against non-Christian Slavs, Prussians, and Lithuanians. The core of the Teutonic Knights was a relatively small force of knights, but they often took on volunteers and mercenaries to augment their number. The history of the German eastward expansion is extensive and complicated, so suffice it to say that gradually the Teutonic Knights and some of the German princes gradually took over the Slavic dominated areas known as "Mecklenburg" (named after a castle there) and "Pomerania" ("Pommern" in German, but the name is from Slavic and basically means "land/area along the seacoast," as it borders the Baltic Sea). Then came the area known as "Prussia,"**** named after the Baltic people who lived there. A bit further south, a "Crusade" was launched against the Wends (a Slavic people) in the area of the Brandenburg Mark (modern Berlin area), and not only was it successful in recapturing lost territory, it expanded the German dominated area. All of this activity took place during the 1100s, and the recaptured areas and much of the newly acquired areas, were incorporated into the empire.

*While I’ve more or less covered this, it bears repeating that the empire was not “holy,” except that the Pope crowned the German Emperor after his election, technically he was elected as the German "king." He didn’t become “emperor” until the Pope crowned him. Nor was it “Roman,” as it was German-led, but the term “Roman” was used to symbolize that the Roman Empire’s mantle had been picked up once again. And it wasn’t really an “empire,” but a large-scale feudal structure, with the individual constituent states having tremendous power, and the central authority, embodied by the emperor, being relatively weak, with some exceptions.

**As mentioned previously, the rulers of the “states” were collectively known as “the German princes,” regardless of their individual titles; that is, king, prince, archduke, etc., and I will likely use that term often.

*** The Estonians are closely related to the Finns, and even to the Hungarians. Linguistically they do not speak an Indo European language, but rather they speak a language part of another language family, “Uralic.” Some ethnologists (they study “ethnic groups”) and linguists also believe the Estonians, Finns, and Hungarians are related to other peoples who came out of Asia, like the Turks, and that “theory” was more widely accepted until recent decades when it was contested by a number of ethnographers and linguists; so, I’ll say that aspect is “unresolved.”

**** The name "Prussians" outlived the original Baltic (non-German) people, as the province continued to be called "Prussia" ("Preussen" in German--pronounced proy-sen) and the German people who lived there came to be called "Prussians." Actually, the original Prussians were simply absorbed into the German population and ceased to exist. Many German noble families and aristocrats were given/established large estates in areas there, and they came to be called "Junkers" (a contraction from "junger Herr," literally "young master," with the implicit meaning of someone who had control over others and lands). Later, as you'll see, (German) Prussia expanded tremendously beyond its original borders.

WORD HISTORY:
Knight-Not all is known about the history of this word, but it is "assumed" by "some" linguists to go back to the Indo European base "gen/gn," whose Germanic offshoot, "kun," gave us the basis for "kin" (relative). From that developed the word that gave English "knave" (the "kn" was pronounced back then) and German "Knabe," both originally meaning "young male servant." A variant(?) then gave Old English "cniht" (the "cn"="kn" also pronounced back then), which also meant "boy servant," and sometimes even just "boy," and the other West Germanic languages had closely related forms of the word with the same meaning. It wasn't long before it simply came to mean "male servant," with no connection to age, and then simply to "military servant," a meaning that likewise developed in the other West Germanic languages. During the Middle Ages in England, the word came to be applied to "men who gave military service in exchange for land," and later still, "men who were given nobility status in exchange for military service," and by the 1500s, it became a noble title in its own right in England. Its relatives on the Continent didn't develop that last sense, but the notion of "servitude" remained, and German has "Knecht," which still means "servant, bondsman." Further, the servitude idea even gives the German word a meaning of "slave" in certain situations. In English, the verb, meaning "to knight," developed from the noun and the servitude of a man to the grantor or to the king. The other Germanic languages have: German and Low German "Knecht" (servant, farm worker, can also mean slave), Dutch "knecht" (servant, trade worker under a master), Frisian "knjocht" (servant, worker). The North Germanic languages (Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic and Swedish) do not use forms of the word. 

The German Question, Part Eight

Very slightly updated/edited July 6, 2015

Just to back track for a moment, for quite some time the German emperors were seen as heads of the German Church, something that caused bitter resentment by the various popes of those times. The Saxon and Frankish emperors gradually established a more centralized form of power, represented by the emperor, by having administrators spread throughout the land. This caused resentment by the nobility. It was therefore not uncommon for the Papacy and the German nobility to act as allies against the emperors from time to time. When the Hohenstaufen family succeeded the Saxons and Franks* as emperors, they eventually turned much of their attention to Italy, often actually even living in Italy, not in Germany (a much broader geographical entity in those times). This neglect of German lands by the ruling Hohenstaufens suited the German nobility just fine, as they gained power at the expense of the imperial throne. Some German emperors tried to regain some of the lost power, and all of this squabbling led to what was really an off and on civil war.

By the mid 1300s, the emperor issued a "Golden Bull;" that is a decree with a golden seal. This edict set more precise rules for the election of the German emperor by giving the vote to seven "electors" (Kurfürsten in German); three Church authorities (the archbishops of Mainz, Trier, and Cologne) and four secular leaders (the Palatine Count (Pfalzgraf in German), the King of Bohemia,** the Duke (Herzog in German) of Saxony, and the Margrave (Markgraf in German, and a "Graf" is really the equivalent to a "count" or "earl" in English) of Brandenburg***). A majority vote was all that was needed, and any dissenters could not block the wishes of the majority (previously that had not been the case). As you can see, the religious leaders were in the minority, and this further diminished the Pope's already scant involvement in German affairs. While that may have been a good thing for the Germans, the fact that provincial leaders held so much power in selecting the emperor made the emperor's position relatively weak; a condition that essentially lasted until the end of the empire.

Next...the Germans move eastward. (A Word History is below the notes)

* The large Germanic tribe the Franks dominated the area now known as France. Their tribal name even became the name “France,” and their language, Frankish in English, became the term “French.” Not all Franks lived in this region, however, as one branch lived in what became part of Germany; thus the “Frankish” emperors of Germany (Holy Roman Empire). As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, while Frankish gave a number of words to “French,” Frankish was gradually absorbed into, and became a part of, the more extensive Latin-based language already present when the Franks conquered the area. That absorption process took several centuries to complete, and modern French has far fewer active words of Frankish heritage than long ago.

** Bohemia, essentially the modern Czech Republic, and a former part of Czechoslovakia, had been controlled by Germanic tribes going back to the B.C. era. Some of these Germanic tribes moved around, or even moved out of the area, over the centuries, and they were replaced, at least partially, by incoming Slavic tribes. These Slavic tribes also moved around, for instance to avoid the Mongols, and Germanic (or maybe German might now be more appropriate) people moved back in. The area was very mixed, with Germans living basically in a sort of semicircle around the Slavic core, but with some Germans even living within that core area. In the early 1300s, Heinrich of Luxemburg became German emperor, and shortly thereafter, his son Johann was invited to become King of Bohemia, thus making Bohemia an integral part of the empire.

*** Brandenburg is the area that today contains Berlin and the entire area around that city. Back long ago, you may remember from an earlier part, Mark Brandenburg was established as a border defense area, a "Mark," or "March," of the early Holy Roman Empire.

 

WORD HISTORY:

Eke-This word goes back to the Indo European root "aug," which had the notion/concept of "increasing, growing, adding to/supplementing." The Old Germanic offshoot was "aukan." This gave Anglo-Saxon "eacan," likewise with the general meaning of "increase/supplement." There was also Old English "eke/eac," or some form of it, but sources were unclear on the spelling, which meant "also, in addition, besides." There are various forms of the word in the other Germanic languages, as for example: German has "auch," Low German has various forms, including "ak/ok," Dutch has "ook," Norwegian and Danish have "ogsa," and Swedish has "ochsa," all with the same meaning "also/too/in addition." Icelandic has "auka," with the meaning "increase, add to." In American English it is commonly used in reference to just barely achieving something, as in, "Bill and Mary were able to eke out a win by a fraction of a point in the skating competition." 

The German Question, Part Seven

So we're now in the era circa 1000 A.D. and the term "German" is more appropriate for the Germanic peoples living in what are now modern Holland (The Netherlands), two-thirds of Belgium, Alsace, a part of Lorraine, Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, and about two-thirds of Switzerland. (See this article for more info on Germanic/German meanings:

http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2009/02/why-do-we-call-them-these-names.html )

As we've seen, following Charlemagne's death, his vast holdings had been divided, thus bringing a demise to his original empire. In 962 A.D., under Otto I, the eastern region of the original empire was revived with the name, "Holy Roman Empire." The name was chosen to show that the mantle of the Roman Empire had been picked up once again, and that the empire would be a protector of Christendom. The Crusades had the Germans sending substantial contingents of men to the Middle East as part of the German-led "Holy Roman Empire." The Crusades brought many heroes to Christendom, including to the Germans. Many warriors returned home and were rewarded for their services with land and noble titles. It was during this general time frame that "feudalism" developed. (See Word History below)

Feudalism was an important part of the history of many European countries, and it certainly had a major impact on the historical development of the Germans, more so to the negative side. Feudalism is a complicated subject, but an important part of it was basically a system where "lords" ruled their lands by providing land to some number of men, "vassals," who then vowed to provide military aid to that ruler. Typically, the land was not granted outright, but "leased" to the vassal, who had the right to earn whatever income he could from that land. With the Germans, the system actually was in place regarding the emperor, as he was dependent upon a large network of "lords" to provide him with military forces. This dependency weakened the role of the emperor, although the power of the emperor, in some cases, was certainly tied to his own personality. Some emperors had forceful personalities that garnered them support, others were much weaker, with the latter being the rule, not the exception. On the other hand, the power of the local and regional nobles increased with this situation, thus forming the basis for a number of "states" within the empire. Some of these "states" eventually came to be called kingdoms (and were thus ruled by "kings"), others were called principalities (ruled by princes), duchies (ruled by "dukes") or arch duchies (ruled by archdukes).* Collectively these various regional rulers came to be called "the German princes," regardless of their specific titles. Throughout this struggle for power, the Papacy was always looming large, looking to expand its power, too. All of this led to a very fragmented power structure, seldom with a central authority.

Otto I and his immediate successors were Saxon emperors and they were followed by Frankish emperors through much of the 11th Century and into the 12th Century, when another Saxon became the emperor. Then followed the Hohenstaufen dynasty, which had developed in Swabia, in southwestern Germany (now known as the home of Mercedes, the famous auto company, which is in the city of Stuttgart). Frederick I, a Hohenstaufen, is perhaps best remembered for his nickname, Barbarossa, which was used later by Hitler as a code name for his invasion of the Soviet Union. The Hohenstaufens eventually came to be deeply involved in Italy, much of which had been a part of the empire. Ever so gradually, however, the Papacy eroded German control over Italy. Due to marriages, some of the Hohenstaufens spent far more time in Italy, namely Sicily, than in the German areas. This further weakened imperial power within the German lands, as governing authority was essentially turned over to the increasingly powerful rulers of the "states."

* Just for the sake of example, Bavaria was a kingdom, while Austria was an arch duchy. The number of these "states" constantly changed, but frequently they numbered in the hundreds, and occasionally in the thousands!!! It was no wonder the Germans remained so divided for centuries, with so many local/regional rulers.

 

WORD HISTORY: 

Feudal-Like the word "fee," covered in "The German Question, Part Four," this word goes back to Indo European "peku," which meant "cattle" and ultimately "property." Latin got the word from Germanic (presumably from Frankish) as "feudum," which meant a type of "estate provided in exchange for service." From this developed Latin "feudalis," which English seems to have acquired in the early 1600s as "feudal." People in the Middle Ages did not see "feudalism" as a form of societal structure, and that term was not applied to the system in those times, but rather came along much later and was used by historians. Feudal is much connected with "fee," and for those interested, here is the link to that article, with the Word History at the end:

http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2010/03/german-question-part-four.html

The German Question, Part Six

Beginning before the death of Charlemagne in 814 A.D., the eastern border areas of his empire were secured by fortified territories. The territories were given by the emperor to nobles to administer. These nobles had fairly substantial military forces at their disposal, and the areas were called “Marks” or “Marches” (see Word History below the notes). As time passed, these various Marks had their own boundaries and designations changed, one of the most famous being the “Ostmark,” or “East Mark,” which formed what became a substantial part of modern Austria, and another, “Mark Brandenburg,” which became the modern area of Berlin and environs.

From about 1000 A.D. and continuing for the next couple of centuries, Germans began to migrate from densely populated western areas of Europe into many of the sparsely Slavic populated regions of eastern Europe.* Since Christianity had spread throughout most of western and central Europe, and part of eastern Europe, Church authorities looked upon these “Christian” migrations with favor.** The Germans, who brought various skills and even wealth with them, were even welcomed by the Slavic rulers of many of these areas, and much of this relocation was done peacefully. It seems that some of these Germans eventually were assimilated (absorbed) into the Slavic population, thus losing their “German” identity, but many formed essentially all German communities, or the German population overtook the Slavic population in certain areas, eventually absorbing (assimilating) the Slavs, who then lost their “Slavic” identity. These latter were/are usually referred to as “Wends.”

*This was something of a “reverse migration,” as earlier, Germanic tribes, some, but not all, later to be called “Germans,” had tended to migrate from east to west.

** It should be noted that the Franks eventually subdued their main rival among the Germanic tribes, the Saxons, and forcibly “Christianized” them. The wars, which accomplished that feat, continued from about 780 and ended in about 804 A.D. The Saxons are very important to our story, and they were a large confederation of Germanic tribes in northern Europe, part of which migrated to Britain along with other Germanic tribal elements, conquered the local Celtic population after the withdrawal of Roman forces during the 400s A.D., and founded England ("the land of the Angles," after one of those Germanic tribes, the Angles).

WORD HISTORY:
Mark-This word goes back to the Indo European base "mereg," which meant "border, edge, boundary" (Latin, another Indo European language, had "margo," which meant "margin"). The Old Germanic offshoot was "marko." This gave Old English "mearc/merc," which continued the same basic meaning with "boundary, limit," but eventually it also came to mean "a sign of a boundary or border," and this eventually evolved into any sign designating a boundary, perhaps traced on a map. These various general meanings gave us our more modern meanings of "putting a mark on something to show ownership," "marking something on paper," "putting a mark on something (as in "Oops!) and "in taking notice" ("Mark my words"). The other Germanic languages have: German has "Mark" (noun), Low German  has "Mark" (noun) and "marken" (verb), West Frisian has "merke" (both noun and verb form), Dutch has "merk" (noun) and "markeren/merken" (verbs), Danish has "maerke" (noun) and "markere/maerke" (verbs), Icelandic has "merki" (noun) and "merkja" (verb), Norwegian has "merke" (noun) and "merke/markere" (verbs), Swedish has "märke" (noun) and "märka" (verb).

The German Question, Part Three

While we now have the beginnings of “German” history at this point, 9 A.D., that history is still not separate and distinct from the history of many of the Germanic tribes. As the Roman Empire declined, the Germanic tribes pushed into imperial lands, including into Gaul, a Roman province, much of which equates to modern France, but conquered by the Romans long before this time period. The Franks, a Germanic tribe that seems to have taken over a number of closely related and allied Germanic tribes, conquered much of northern Gaul (I guess you could say, “they had a lot of Gaul”), which also included a part of what is now Belgium. The Franks established themselves as a formidable group, and Karl, one of their kings, later had the honorary title of “the Great” added to his name. Karl is better known to English speakers by the French rendering of his name, “Charlemagne.”* As the Frankish lands grew, Karl was crowned “Emperor of the Romans” by the Pope in 800 A.D. in Rome (the title was symbolic, rather than literal). The Germans see this as the beginning of The Holy Roman Empire,** which, in the early 1500s, came to be called “The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation;” thus, Germans consider Karl as “their” first emperor. Karl lived for the most part in the city of Aachen, in the modern German state of North Rhine-Westphalia (Nordrhein-Westfalen), and he was buried there upon his death. By the time of his death in 814 A.D., Charlemagne’s lands consisted of much of Western Europe, including Italy. His son, Ludwig (Louis),*** actually shared the imperial throne with his father for the last year of Charlemagne’s life.**** A couple of years after Ludwig/Louis died, an agreement was reached to divide the empire between his three surviving sons (The Treaty of Verdun, in 843 A.D.). Charles (I’ll use the English name forms), also known to history as “Charles the Bald,” was given much of what is modern France. Louis, also known to history as “Louis the German,” was given much of what are modern central and southern Germany, Austria, and much of Switzerland. Lothair, was given what are essentially (in modern geographic terms) the northern half of Italy, eastern France (including Alsace and Lorraine, which have a big part in our developing story), the western part of Switzerland, northwest Germany and much of what are termed “the Low Countries.” This division of territory, while granting some peace in those times, set the stage for fierce struggles in the future. (A Word History is below the notes)

*Charlemagne was the French rendering of Latin “Carolus Magnus.” In German his name is “Karl der Grosse.” While the French and Germans have had many disputes over the centuries, Karl is the one prominent person they share as part of a common history. The language that developed in Gaul during the Roman period was heavily based upon Latin, and though the conquering Franks spoke a Germanic dialect (Frankish), eventually that dialect was absorbed into the Latin form spoken in the conquered lands, but not before Frankish loaned a fair number of words to its Latin-speaking subjects, including the terms “France” and “French.”

** The term “Holy Roman Empire” was not used until the 900s.

*** I’ve seen his name as both, but I “assume” he was called by the Germanic form “Ludwig,” at least at first.

**** Ludwig/Louis, who later came to be known as “Louis the Pious,” was the only surviving “legitimate” son of Charlemagne.

                                                                   

WORD HISTORY:

Game- We have two distinct words "game" in English. (1) By far the most common is "fun and amusing pastime, contest, sport," which is a compound going back to Old Germanic "ga," a collective prefix, and "mann," which meant "person," and which is also the ancestor of the English word "man." The notion behind the Germanic compound is "people participating together." This gave Old English "gamen," which meant "fun, amusement." The other Germanic dialects/languages had similar forms long ago, with Old High German, for instance, having "gaman," which meant "glee," and Old Frisian (a very close relative of Old English) having "game," but most have now died out. One source mentions Swedish as still having "gamman" and Danish still with "gammen," and although I could not find them in dictionaries, they may not be considered "standard" in either language, but rather as dialect words). In English, by the late 1200s and early 1300s the word took on the meaning of "contest played by a set of rules" (this obviously retained the notion of "participation for amusement"), and not much later the idea of "hunting wild animals" was added, which then transferred the term for the activity to the object (wild animals) of the sport; thus we have "game" (noun) used for "wild animals," not that the term isn't used for humans at times, too. This also gave us the form "gamey" during the mid 1800s to denote "the taste or flavor of wild game." And since wild animals were (and still are) hunted in contest, the term "fair game" developed for anything not off limits (supposedly first used in the 1820s). Also, during the early 1700s the sense of "spirited, feisty, brave, plucky" developed as an adjective, seemingly from the spirit of wild animals to defend themselves, and perhaps also from game birds used in "fighting events" (cock fighting). By the way, the spelling "gamen" (and the variant "gammon") remained with some in English clear into the 1500s, and is still with us in "backgammon."

(2) The second word "game," meaning "lame," came into common English usage from a dialect in the north Midlands of England during the latter part of the 1700s as "gam." The origins are uncertain, but an old French dialect word (which presumably would have been brought by the Normans), "gambe," has been suggested. It meant "leg," and since "game leg" was/is a common term associated with "game," that "could" be the source. And while I could not find this term, one source suggests "gambi," supposedly an old French word, as a possible source, since it gives the meaning as "crooked." Whatever the source, "gammy," a non-standard word once used in England, developed from it in the 1800s, and meant "bad."