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Low
Germanic loanwords in Modern English (Written
2000; Updated:
11 August 2012) Introduction The
aim of this small article is to document some of the more common and
more interesting loans English has received from other Low Germanic
languages during the course of its history. By Low Germanic languages
we mean Middle Low German and Modern Low Saxon (including "Low German"
in Germany and "Low Saxon" in the Netherlands), Middle Dutch, Modern
Dutch and
Afrikaans,
Middle and Modern Frisian. Old Low Franconian
(Old Dutch) appears to have had no traceable contact with English.
Afrikaans, an offshoot of Dutch, has made some considerable
contributions to English over the last 250 years and a good many of
these are reviewed below. The chapter in Serjeantson's
book "Low German and High German" (see sources) has formed the basis of
the words selected in the lists. Words
of Low Germanic origin are often very close in form and idiom to those
of native Anglo-Saxon origin and this has caused problems for scholars.
Broadly speaking, the further back you go, the closer the resemblances
become.
It therefore sometimes becomes difficult to decide if a word found in
Middle English, for example, is a Low Germanic loan or simply a native
word that has not been recorded before. Middle English verbs, in
particular, often very closely resemble their Low Germanic cousins from
the Continent. Connections
between the English and their Low Germanic brethren always remained
vigorous after the Anglo-Saxon invasions of the fifth century.
Anglo-Saxon missionaries were active in preaching in Frisia and northern Germany and
it is known for certain that our forefathers were acquainted with some
Old Saxon literature, as Old Saxon influence on the Old English Genesis
clearly shows. Following
the Norman invasion, ties remained strong with the Low Countries, now
mainly for commercial, rather than cultural reasons. Many Dutch and
Flemish artisans and craftsman settled across England during the Middle
Ages. These workmen were famed for their skills across Europe. Since
these immigrants settled widely across the land, a situation
paralleling the regional or local loaning trends of the Scandinavian
constituent of the English vocabulary is not found, i.e. Low Germanic
loans appear in almost every part of England. They are far fewer in
number however than the loans from the Norsemen. External
trade also played a vital part in the passage of Dutch and Low German
loans into English. English merchants travelled widely in the Low
Countries and some settled there. English wool was a highly prized
commodity that
attracted
much trade from Flemish weavers. It was also one of the factors leading
to strong commercial ties between English merchants and the Hanseatic
Trading
League,
who brought a Middle Low German influence to bear. This commercial and
political federation was already doing a great deal to alter the
lexical basis of the mainland Scandinavian languages, although its
influence on English was much slighter. In later Tudor times, English
soldiers must have picked up some military and other words while
serving in the wars in Low Countries during that period. After
the Reformation, the Low Germanic influence is overwhelmingly from
Early Modern Dutch, owing to the Netherlands' growing influence in
overseas trade, shipping and their expanding commercial and political
power. Many Dutch loans enter into English,
and most of the European languages during the ensuing two hundred years
and most are associated with Dutch excellence in shipbuilding and
exploration but some also reflect their skill in art and painting.
Dutch art was highly esteemed in the 1600s and 1700s and a number of
words enter into English as a result of this admiration. A strange fact
is the apparent lack of any influx or acceleration of borrowing from
Dutch after the ascension of William III to the English throne, despite
his being of Dutch origin. Further, the prolonged struggle between
England and the Netherlands over their various overseas colonies dotted
around the world seems not to have introduced many words into English
as loans. What
was formerly called Cape Dutch, but now Afrikaans, has had by far the
most significant role to play as a donor of Low Germanic words since
the late 1700s. Many of these are purely local and little known outside
English speakers in South Africa,
but some are known across the English-speaking world. Parts of the Cape
were in Dutch hands in the 1600s and later English
settlers content to use the Dutch derived words for the new objects and
concepts rather than formulate their own. A good number of originally
Dutch words have slipped into English via Afrikaans,
owing in part to the fact that until the early part of the 20th century
Afrikaans was considered substandard and Dutch served as a language of
officialdom, church and social prestige in Southern Africa. The
following trends, according to Serjeantson,
emerge from a diachronic review of the loans into English from Low
Germanic. Lexical influence on English from the Low Countries does not
begin in earnest until the late medieval
period,
and nearly all
loans
in the 1400s pertain to
nautical
and commercial matters. During the next century, a number of military
words appear owing to the foreign wars, as well as more nautical terms
and a few words from art. Even when considering only words still used
today, the 1500s saw the greatest number of Dutch loans entering
English.
The 1600s yield up fewer loans, mostly in seafaring, war and art. The
1700s are remarkable for a dearth of Dutch loans (roughly corresponding
to the decline in Dutch commercial and naval power) and for the
first
period of loaning from Afrikaans. Most of these are traced to various
contemporary
travel
writings rather than to Anglo-Dutch Cape politics. An interesting
element has been the Dutch influence on American English owing to the
former Dutch colonies in New England and elsewhere which were later
annexed by the English. However, Dutch influence did not stop there,
and persons of Dutch descent have contributed a number of loans into US
English which later spread to other varieties of English. Here
are few broad categories of Low Germanic loaning influence on English: Naval*:
bulwark, buoy,
cruise, deck, dock, freebooter,
freight, hoist, hold,
keelhaul, reef, rove,
rover, schooner, skipper,
sloop, smuggle, swabber,
walrus, yacht, yawl; Commercial:
brandy, firkin, gin,
groat, guilder,
hawker, hops, huckster,
mart, naat,
remskoen,
rijksdaaler,
tackle, togt,
wagon; Political
and civil life:
baasskap,
bond, boor, burgher,
burgomaster, klonkie,
margrave, polder, rooinek, swart
gevaar, uproar,
verkrampte,
verligte,
volk,
voortrekker; Military:
beleager,
furlough, onslaught,
oudstryder,
roster; Art:
easel, etch,
maulstick, sketch, stipple,
stripe; Local
conditions and animals:
aardvark, aardwolf,
gemsbok, grysbok, hanepoot, klompie, kloof, kop,
koppie,
kraal, lammervanger,
outspan, platteland,
poort,
rand, rooikat,
springbok, springhaas,
spruit,
steenbok, veldt, vlakte, vlei, wildebeest
etc. *note
that only a selection of the more
commonly known nautical loans are reviewed in this
article. For a much more thorough review of the entire Low Germanic
element in English, see A
Dictionary of the Low-Dutch Element in the English Vocabulary
by J.F. Bense (The
Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1939) and Niederländisches
Lehngut im Mittelenglischen
by J.M. Toll (Halle, 1926). Word
colours:
blue
= (Early) Modern Dutch, Low Saxon or Afrikaans; green
= Old Low Franconian
(OLF), Old English (OE); maroon
= Middle English (ME); purple
= Middle Dutch (MDu) or
Middle Low German (MLG) or Middle Frisian; red
= Modern
English.
Other
abbreviations:
LS = Modern
Low
Saxon ("Low
German" in Germany); OHG
= Old High German; SA English = South African English;
E = Early. i)
via Middle English: boor
(1430) "peasant; uncouth person" and in the 1500s coming to mean "Dutch
or German peasant" from MDu
boer
"farmer, peasant" (cf. Du boer
"farmer; country dweller, boor"); booze
(c.1300:
bouse
"drink deeply") from MDu
bûsen
"drink heavily, drink to excess" cf. Dutch buizen;
the noun first appears in 1732, formed from the verb (Barnhart);
bulwark
(1418: bulwerke)
"rampart, defensive wall" from MDu
bolwerc
(bolle
"tree trunk + werc
"work"); the word was also loaned into the Scandinavian languages but
from Middle Low German; buoy
(1296: boye)
from MDu boje,
boeie
"buoy" (cf. Du boei);
deck
(1466: deke
"covering for a section of a boat") loan from MDu
dek
"roof, covering" (now Du dek),
from the verb decken
"cover"; the sense of "platform of a ship" is found in 1513 (Barnhart);
firkin
(1391: ferdkyn)
"small wooden cask; a unit equal to 9 gallons (UK)" from MDu vierdekijn
(lit.) "fourth part"; freight
(1228: fraght
"cargo", 1442: freight)
from MDu (or MLG?) vracht,
vrecht
"freight, cargo" (cf. Du vracht,
LS Fracht);
groat
(1362: grotes)
"a
denomination of coin which was recognized from the 13th
c. in various countries of Europe"
from MDu. groot
"great,
thick";
groove
(1400: grofe
"cave, pit") from MDu groeve
"ditch, furrow"; the modern sense appears in 1659 and the word is the
same as English grave
from OE græf
(cf. Du groeve
"quarry;
grave");
guilder
(1467: gilder)
"Dutch florin" from Middle Flemish gulden
(lit. "golden"; cf. Du gulden
"Guilder,
florin");
hobble
(c.1300: hobelen)
"walk with a lame awkward movement" from MDu
hobbelen
"stammer; toss, rock; halt" (cf. Du hobbelen
"bump, rock, jolt)"; hold
(of a ship) (1333: holl,
1591: hold)
partly from a native word and partly from MDu
hol
"hold of a ship"; hops
(1440: hoppe)
from MDu hoppe
(now
Du hop);
huckster
(c.1200:
hucster
"peddlar") "person who
sells small articles on the street, peddlar"
from MDu hoekster
"peddlar";
loiter
(1425: loitren)
from MDu loteren
"to be erratic, shake, be loose" (cf. Du leuteren
"shake,
totter; drivel");
luck
(1481: lucke)
from MDu luc
(< gheluc
"happiness, good fortune" (Barnhart)); cf. Dutch geluk,
Middle High German gelücke,
German Glück
"happiness, good fortune"; mart
(1436) from MDu marct
"market", ultimately from Latin mercatus
(cf. Du markt
"market");
poll
(c.1290:
polle
"head hair") from MDu polle
"head, top"; the modern meaning of taking a collection of votes
appeared first in 1625 (Barnhart); rover
(1393: rovere
"pirate") now meaning "wanderer; inconstant person" from MDu rovere
"pirate, robber" (cf. Du rover
"robber");
skipper
(1390: skipper)
"captain of a naval vessel" from MDu
schipper
"master of a ship, captain" (cf. Du schipper
"captain,
master mariner");
sled
(1325: sledde)
from MDu sledde
"sled" (cf. Du slee
"sled,
sledge");
snatch
(c.1200:
snecchen
"take a sudden bite") from MDu
snacken
"snatch; chatter" (cf. Du snakken
"gasp, pant", LS snacken
'to chat', 'to talk', 'to speak', Norwegian, Danish snakke "talk,
chatter"
<
MLG snakken
"talk");
the modern meaning is known from about 1338 (Barnhart); spool
(c.1325: spool)
"a cylinder on which material is wound", from MDu
spoele
"spool" (Du spoel
"reel, coil, spool"); wagon
(pre-1475: waggin)
originally meaning a four-wheeled vehicle for the bearing of loads,
from MDu wagen,
waghen
"wagon, cart", cognate with OE wægn,
wæn
(> archaic/poetic wain),
OFris wein.
Modern wagon
is clearly not from the OE source since medial -g-
exists in contrast to other words of this type from OE such as hægel,
nægel
which have lost it (> hail, nail)
and is the result of later borrowing, probably through trade links with
the Low Countries (Barnhart); wainscot
1352/3: an imported oak of high quality, since 1548: a wood panel or
piece of panelling
affixed to the walls of a room (its present meaning) < MDu waghenscote:
superior quality oak wood, but originally "oak boards suitable for
wagon construction" (waghen
"wagon" + scote
"partition, crossbar"); ii)
later loans: beleaguer
(1589) "trouble persistently, harass; lay siege" from EModDu (or perhaps Low German) belegeren
"besiege" (lit. "camp
around"; cf. Du belegeren
"besiege"); boss
(1649: base)
loan into US English from EModDu
baas
"master"; brandy
(1622: brandewine)
from EModDu brandewijn
"distilled (lit. "burnt") wine" (Du brandewijn
"brandy");
burgher
(1568) "citizen, member of the trading class of a medieval city" from MDu burgher
"citizen, townsman" (cf. Du burger
"citizen, civilian"); burgomaster
(1590) "chief magistrate of a Dutch or German town, mayor" from EModDu burgemeester
(burg
"city, town" + meester
"master"; cf. Du burgemeester
"mayor, provost"); cookie
(1703) loan into US English from Dutch koekje
"little cake" (koek
"cake" + -je
diminutive forming suffix); cruise
(1651) loan from EModDu
kruisen
"to cross, sail crossing forth and back"; cruller
(1800s) "deep-fried doughnut" loan into US English from Dutch kruller,
from
krullen
"curl"; dock
(1513, meaning here "hollow made by a run aground ship") from MDu docke;
the current use as a synonym for wharf appears in 1707 in US English
(cf. Du dok
"dock(yard)"); dope
(1807) with original meaning of "sauce, gravy", loan into US English
from Dutch doop
"thick dipping sauce"; related to English dip;
dorp
(1500s) originally "a small town or village in the Netherlands" from EModDu
dorp
"village", but now generally means "village in South Africa" from
Afrikaans via Du dorp
"village"; drill
(1611) "an instrument for boring" from EModDu
dril,
drille
"hole; drill"; the verb drill
"bore" first appears in 1649 (Barnhart); dune
(1790) from MDu duun
via French dune (cf. Du duin
"dune"); identical with English down
"hill" from Old English dûn
"hill"; easel
(1634) loan from EModDu
ezel
"ass, donkey" from MDu esel
"ass, donkey"; etch
(1634: etch)
from EModDu
etsen
"etch" (cf. Du etsen)
a loan of German ätzen
"etch", from OHG azzôn
"feed, bait" (cf. German essen,
Dutch eten
"eat"); the noun etching
first appears in the same year; the association with eating stems from
the use of acid in the process of engraving to eat away at the metal
surface (Barnhart);
euphroe,
uphroe
(1800s) "crowfoot dead-eye, wooden block with holes through which the
lines of a crowfoot are rove" from Dutch juffrouw
"Miss; maiden", from MDu
joncfrouwe
(jonc
"young" + frouwe
"woman"); freebooter
(1570: frebetter)
"pirate" from EModDu vrijbuiter
"pirate, bandit" (now: "freebooter"; second element related to English booty
"spoils, gains"); frolic
(1583) "to caper about, behave playfully" (< earlier adjective
(1538) "merry, joyful) from EModDu
vrolijk
"cheerful",
cf. MDu vrôlîke
"cheerful, merry, gay", vroli(c)ken
"have fun" (vrô
"happy, glad" + lîke
"like"), Modern Dutch opvrolijken
"to
cheer up"; furlough
(1625: vorloffe,
fore-loofe)
"leave of absence from military duty" from Du verlof
"permission, leave" (modelled
on German Verlaub);
gin
(1714; from earlier geneva)
from EModDu jenever
"juniper"; hoist
(1509: hoise,
1548: hoihst)
from MDu hyssen
"to hoist";
hustle
(1684, meaning "shake to and fro"), now meaning "to hurry", from EModDu husselen,
hutselen
"to shake" (cf. Du hutselen
"shake, shuffle"); iceberg
(1774) from Dutch ijsberg
(or
alternatively from Danish
isbjerg,
German Eisberg);
isinglass
(1528: isomglas)
"gelatine made from the
bladders of freshwater fish" from EModDu
huysenblase
"sturgeon's bladder"; keelhaul
(1626) "drag a person by a rope through the water under a ship's keel"
from EModDu kielhalen
"keelhaul" (cf. Du kielhalen
"keelhaul"); kermis
(1570-99) in the Low Countries, a carnival or annual fair (originally a
church mass at which a fair was held) from EModDu
kermis,
kermisse
"fair" (< kerk
"church" + misse
"mass"); landloper,
land-louper
(1500s) "vagabond, vagrant" from MDu
landlooper
from loopen
"ramble" (> Du lopen
"go, walk"; cf. Du landloper
"tramp, vagrant"); landscape
(1598: landskip)
from MDu lantscap
(land
"land, province" + scap
"-ship"; cf. Du landschap
"landscape"); maelstrom
first recorded as the proper name (1701) of a whirlpool off the Lototen Islands, with the generalised meaning of a large
and violent
whirlpool becoming current about 1841; from Danish Malstrøm,
loaned from Dutch maelstrom
(modern spelling: maalstroom
"whirlpool,
vortex");
mangle
(1774) "a rolling-press for smoothing linen, a wringer" from Dutch mangel
"mangle"; margrave
(1551: marcgrave)
"a German nobleman ranking above a count" from MDu
marcgrâve
(marc
"border, boundary" + grâve
"count", cf. OHG marcgrâvo);
matje,
matjes
(1870-99) a young herring, especially one salted or pickled, from Du maatje
"young herring" (contracted from maatjesharing,
a corruption of earlier maagdekesharing
"virgin
herring", a herring without spawn);
maulstick,
mahlstick
(1658) from EModDu
maalstok
(< malen
"paint" + stok
"stick"); the first element has been misunderstood in English; muff
(1599) from EModDu
mof
"muff" (< moffel);
onslaught
(1625: anslaight)
from EModDu aanslag
"attack, assault", from MDu
aenslach
(aen
"on" + slach
"strike, blow" < slagen
"strike,
beat"); the second element of the English word has been confused with slaught,
an obsolete noun meaning slaughter (Barnhart) - cf. West Saxon slieht
"slaughter,
murder, death"; outlander
(1605) "foreigner" inspired by EModDu
uitlander
"foreigner, stranger" (now Du buitenlander)
but cf. Afrikaans uitlander
"alien, foreigner, stranger", German Ausländer
"foreigner"; polder
(1600s) "a stretch of land reclaimed from the sea or a lake" from MDu polre
"polder" (Du polder);
rant
(1598) "speak wildly" from obsolete MDu
randen,
ranten
"talk foolishly, rave"; reef
(1584: riffe,
riff)
"a shoal or bank" from EModDu
ref,
rif
"reef" (cf. Du rif);
rijsttafel
(1870-99) a South East Asian meal of several assorted dishes
accompanied by rice (< Du rijst
"rice" + tafel
"table"; similar in idiom to Swedish smörgåsbord);
rix-dollar,
rijksdaaler
(1598) "any of several former silver coins of the Netherlands" from EModDu
rijksdaler
(rijk
"state, realm" + daler
"dollar"); roemer
(1870-99) a variety of decorated German or Dutch wineglass, from Du roemer,
a large decorated wineglass (the word is seldom heard nowadays);
roster
(1727) "a list or table detailing the order for duty" from Dutch rooster
"list, table; grating, grid(iron)"; rove
(1536: rove
"practice piracy") from MDu
rooven
"rob" (cf. Du roven
"rob,
steal";
the modern sense of "to wander over or through" appears later;
Santa
Claus
(1773: Saint
A. Claus)
loan into US English from dialectal Dutch Sante
Klaas
"Saint Nicholas"; schooner
(1716: skooner)
"a sailing vessel with at least two masts" probably from Dutch schooner;
sketch
(1668) from Dutch schets
"sketch, drawing", from an Italian loanword schizzo
"sketch";
slim
(1657: "thin, slight", 1674: "sly, crafty") from EModDu slim
"bad; sly, clever" (cf. German schlimm
"bad", Norwegian slem
"bad, naughty"); sloop
(1629) "a sailing vessel with a single mast" from EModDu sloep
(cf.
Du sloep
"cutter, smack, sloop"); smack
"make a sudden noise with the lips" (1557) from MLG, MDu smacken
"strike" or LS, Du smakken
"fling, dash; smack the lips", the sense of "strike with the hand"
appears in 1840 (Barnhart); snap
(1530: snappe
"take a sudden bite") from MDu
snappen
"snap, snatch" (cf. Du snappen
"snap at; get, nab"); snip
(1558: snip
"to snap") from MDu snippen
"to cut into pieces" (cf. Du snipperen
"shred, cut up"); the modern sense of "cut" first appears in 1593
(Barnhart); snoek
(1769-99) a long, slim food fish of the southern oceans (< Du snoek
"pike"); snoop
(1832) loan into US English from Dutch snoepen
"to steal food, to eat secretly, nibble on food; eat sweets" (cf. Du snoepje
"sweet, candy"); the word initially had this meaning in English, with
the present meaning of "to go about sneakingly,
to pry" first being recorded in 1908 (Barnhart); splice
(pre-1625: join together by weaving, from earlier splisyng
(1524)) from MDu splissinge
a verbal noun formed from splissen
"splice" (cf. Du splitsen
"splice,
divide up"),
the general sense of "fasten together" appears in 1626 (Barnhart);
split
(1590: split
"break up") from MDu splitten
"separate, split" (cf. Du splijten
"split"); spook
(1801) a loan into US English from Dutch spook,
from MDu spooc
"ghost, spectre"; stelling
(1830-69) in Guyana and the Carribean,
a wooden pier or jetty (< Du stellen
"place, set", cf. stelling
"position, posture; scaffolding, rack"); stipple
(1669) "draw or paint using dots or flecks" from EmodDu stippelen
"to speckle, dot"; stoop
(1755) a small porch or veranda (< Du stoep
"doorstep(s); pavement", cf. SA English stoep);
stripe
(1626, but probably much older) probably MDu.
strîpe,
but perhaps from MLG; swabber
(1592) "deck cleaner; uncouth fellow" from EmodDu
*zwabber,
having as its base the EModDu
verb zwabben
"to swab, mop"; tattoo
"signal calling soldiers or sailors to their night quarters" (1688: tatoo,
from earlier 1644: tap-too)
from EModDu
taptoe
(< tap
"tap on a cask" + toe
"shut" - referring to police practice of closing ale taps in Dutch
taverns); the verb appears in 1780 (Barnhart);
uproar
(1526) from EModDu oproer
(cf. Du oproer
"revolt; tumult") or perhaps MLG uprôr
"rebellion, insurrection, revolt"; roar
has been mistakenly associated in English with the verb roar,
wheras it in fact
derives from roeren
"to move" (cf. Danish/Norwegian røre
"move, touch", German rühren
"stir, move, touch"); vendue
(1670-99) a public sale or auction (EModDu
vendu(e)
"auction" < Old French vendue
"sale" < vendre
"sell"); vrouw
(1600-29) a woman or wife, especially of Dutch origin - now chiefly
used in SA English (< EModDu
frouw
"woman; wife" from MDu frouwe;
cf. German Frau); waffle
(1774: wafel)
a loan into US English from Dutch wafel
"waffle", from MDu wâfel;
walrus
(1655)
from
Dutch
walrus,
walros
"whale-horse", probably from Swedish valross
loaned into Dutch,
cf. Old Norse rosmhvalr,
hrosshvalr
"walrus" (literally "horse-whale"); witloof
(1870-99) a type of chicory grown for blanching (< Du wit
"white" + loof
"leaves", cf. Du witlof
"chicory"); woonerf
(1970-96) a road in a residential area on which speed restrictions are
placed and traffic speed controlled (< Du woonerf
< woon
"residential" + erf
"property, yard, ground"); yawl
(1670: yall,
yale)
"a two masted sailing
vessel" from Dutch jol
"yawl" (of obscure origin).
i)
via Middle English: bounce
(c.1225:
bunsen
"beat, thump") from MLG bumsen
"thump"; the modern sense of the word is known from about 1519; dote
(c.1200: doten
"rave, be foolish") from MLG doten
"be childish"; the modern meaning of "be extremely fond of" first
appeared in 1477 (Barnhart); snort
(1410: snorten
"snore") from MLG snorten
"drone, hum"; the modern sense first known from 1530 (cf. LS snorken
"snore");
splint
(c.1300: splente
"a strip of metal or wood") from MLG splinte,
splente
"a thin piece of iron" (cf. LS Splint
"splinter, chip, wedge"); the modern meaning is first recorded in
around 1400;
tackle
(c.1250: takel
"equipment, gear") from MLG takel
"rigging of a ship" (cf. LS Takel
"sail
and rigging of a ship"),
a loan from the Scandinavian languages. ii)
later loans: hawker
(1510) "an itinerant peddler of goods" from MLG hôker
"hawker" (cf. LS Höker
"merchant,
dealer; grocer");
knapsack
(1603) from Early Modern LS Knappsack
(derived from the verb knappen
"eat" + noun Sack
"sack, bag", cf. Du knapzak);
smuggle
(pre-1687: smuckle,
1687: smuggle)
from the LS verb smuggeln,
smukkeln
"transport goods illegally";
yacht
(1557: yeaghe)
from MLG jacht
(a short form for jachtschip
"a ship for intercepting"; cf. LS jachtern
"hunt").
boy
(1154: boi
"servant", c.1300: boye
"male child") probably from Middle East Frisian boi
"young gentleman", "page".
Only
those Afrikaans words in SA English of genuinely Low Germanic origin
are included (there are many that Afrikaans has borrowed from
indigenous African languages, as well as further afield). However, in a
few cases, a Afrikaans word loaned into SA English not originally
stemming from Dutch has been included, if such a word shows
characteristic Afrikaans structural adaption or assimilation of the
loanword, e.g. kraal
< Portuguese curral,
naartje
< Tamil nârattai
(with the characteristic Dutch/Afrikaans -je
diminutive suffix, apparently a misreading of the source word). A
word about the comparisons between Afrikaans and Dutch is needed at
this point. The following factors are significant: i) Dutch itself had
no stable orthography when Afrikaans (than called "Cape Dutch") was
first beginning to be spoken; ii) there are considerable differences in
time (Dutch forms quoted are Modern Dutch (Algemeen
Beschaafd Nederlands), whereas
Afrikaans spelling has frozen some spellings not seen in Dutch for
centuries); iii) distance is an important factor (Afrikaans developed
largely isolated from spoken Dutch at any rate) and
was seen as culturally inferior by Dutch speakers; iv) finally there is
the problem of the source of Afrikaans itself. This last factor is
significant because Afrikaans does not stem from the same regional
variety of Dutch that modern standard Dutch does. Taking these factors
into account, we can see that it is somewhat misleading to directly
compare Afrikaans forms with Dutch ones and expect in every case a
direct and invariable lineal descent in form and meaning from Dutch
lexemes to Afrikaans ones, because no such exact concordances can
exist. However, although modern standard Dutch is not really the source
or "parent"
of Afrikaans, modern standard Dutch forms are quoted as being the
source of the Afrikaans words for the sake of convenience
as
well as information, modern standard Dutch being the closest relation
to Afrikaans. By
the 1900s, almost all loans from Low Germanic into English are from
Afrikaans: aardvark
(1833) from now obsolete aardvark
(< Du aard
"earth" + vark
"pig"); the Modern Afrikaans spelling is erdvark;
aardwolf
(1833) an African nocturnal mammal, from Afrikaans aardwolf
(< Du aarde
"earth" + wolf
"wolf"); apartheid
(1947) originally referring to the state of racial segregation in South
Africa, but now more generally used; from Afrikaans apartheid
"separateness" (< Du apart
"apart" + -heid
"-hood"); baasskap
(1930-69) domination, especially of coloured
people by whites (< Afrikaans baasskap
"dominance, domination, mastery" < Du baasschap);
berg
(1800-29) a mountain or mountain range (Afrikaans berg
"mountain" < Du berg
"mountain"); biltong
(1815) "dried cured strips of meat" from Afrikaans biltong
(< Du bil
"buttock" + tong
"tongue"); boerewors
(1930-69) a variety of coarse sausage (Afrikaans boerwors
"home-made sausage" < boer
"farmer" + wors
"sausage" (< Du boer
"farmer" + worst
"sausage", cf. German Wurst,
LS
Wo(r)s(t)));
bond
(1870-99) in South Africa a league or association (Afrikaans bond
"league, union, federation" < Du bond
"confederation, union", from binden
"bind,
tie"; cf. German Bund); Boer
(1824: Boor,
1834: Boer)
a South African of Dutch descent, from Du boer
"farmer", from MDu boer
"farmer"; Boor
is recorded in English as early as 1581 to mean "Dutch or German
peasant" but this form was probably a development of Middle English boveer
"peasant, countryman" from an Old French word, although influence from MDu boer
is probably also present (Barnhart); braaivleis
(1930-69) meat grilled over an open fire (< Afrikaans braaivleis
(braai
"grill, roast" + vleis
"meat", cf. Du braden
"roast" + vlees
"meat")); commandeer
(1881) from Afrikaans kommandeer,
a loan from French commander "to command, to lead";
doek
(1770-99) a cloth, especially a head-scarf (< Afrikaans doek
"cloth, fabric, (head)-scarf" < Du doek
"cloth, fabric"); dop
(1870-99) in South Africa a term for brandy, or more recently a tot of
liquor (Afrikaans dop
"drink, tot, measure; brandy" < Du doop
(originally) "sauce"); duyker,
duiker,
duikerbok
(1777) i) a small African antelope; ii) one of several varieties of
cormorants; from Afrikaans duiker
(< Du duiker
"diver"); eland
(1786) a large African antelope, from Afrikaans eland
(< Du eland
"elk", a loan from German); gemsbok
(1777) a large African antelope, from Afrikaans gemsbok
(< German Gemsbock;
Gemse
"chamois" + Bock "goat"); grysbok
(1786) a small African antelope, from Afrikaans grysbok
(< Du grijs
"grey" + boc
"goat"); hamel
(1830-69) an SA English word meaning "wether"
(Afrikaans hamel
"wether" < Du hamel
"wether"); hanepoot
a South African variety of muscat
grape from Afrikaans hanepoot
(Afrikaans hane
"cock" + poot
"paw", cf. Du haan
"cock" + poot
"paw, fist"); hartebeest
(1786) a large African antelope, from obsolete Afrikaans hartebeest
(lit.) "deerbeast"
(< Du hartebeest
from harte
"deer, hart" + beest
"beast, animal"); the Modern Afrikaans spelling is hartbees;
inspan
(1850) "to harness animals to a vehicle; give assistance" from
Afrikaans inspan
< Du inspannen
"harness" ultimately MDu
inspannen
"harness
(a horse to a cart)";
jong
(1600-29) a coloured
male servant, literally "young man", now generally used as a colloquial
form of address to a young person (< Afrikaans jong
"boy, lad, fellow; servant", cf. Du jongen
"boy, lad"); jukskei
(1800-1829) a wooden peg on an ox-yoke, later, a game resembling quoits
from Afrikaans juk
"yoke, beam" + skein
"pin, peg"; kappie
(1830-69) in SA English, a sun-bonnet (< Du kapje
"cap" diminuitve of kap
"cap, hood, bonnet"); kêrel
(1870-99) a colloquial term in South African English meaning "fellow",
"chap", "bloke" or "boyfriend" (< Afrikaans < Du kerel
"guy, chap, bloke" < OHG karal
"man", cf. German Karl); klipspringer
(1785) a small agile African antelope, from Afrikaans klipspringer
(< Du klip
"rock" + springer
"jumper, hopper"); klompie,
klompje
(1830-69) a collective term for a group of animals, shrubs or trees
(< Afrikaans klompie
"small heap, batch, bunch, knot, squad, clump" < Du klompje
diminutive of klomp
"clump, clod, bunch"); klonkie
(1930-69) a young coloured
boy (Afrikaans klonkie
"coloured boy" - a
contraction of klein
"small" + jong
"youth, lad" + dimunitive
suffix -kie);
kloof
(1730-69) a deep valley, ravine or gorge - chiefly in SA English
(Afrikaans kloof
"chasm, ravine, gorge, valley" < Du kloof
"cleft, gap, crevice"); knobkerrie,
knobkerry
(1849) a stick with a knob at the end used as a weapon by native South
African tribes, from Afrikaans knopkierie
(knop
"knob" + kierie
"stick", a Hottentot word); koeksister
(1900-29) a plaited doughnut dipped in syrup, a cruller (Afrikaans koe(k)sister,
derived from koek
"cook" + sis
"sizzle, fizz" < Du koek
"cook" + sissen
"sizzle, hiss"); kop
(1830-69) a prominent hill or peak, frequently found as a compounding
element in place-names (Afrikaans kop
"head, crown, peak, mountain, summit" < Du kop
"head"); koppie,
kopje
(1881) a small isolated hill, from Afrikaans koppie
(< Du kopje
"little head"; kop
"head" + -je
diminutive forming suffix); kraal
(1730-69) an enclosed village of huts in southern Africa or an
enclosure for cattle in the same (an Afrikaans adaption of Portuguese curral from Nama); kragdadig
(1930-69) forceful, vigourous
or unyielding (Afrikaans kragdadig
"energetic, vigorous, powerful, strong" < Du krachtdadig
"energetic,
vigourous"); krans,
krantz
(1798) a sheer rock face or precipice, from Afrikaans krans
"cliff, rockface,
precipice"; laager
(1850: lager)
a camp or encampment, often protected by encircled waggons, from obsolete Afrikaans
lager
(< German Lager "camp; bed"); the spelling laager
appeared in English in 1881, while the Modern Afrikaans word is laer;
lammervanger
(1830-69) in SA English, a term denoting "eagle" (Afrikaans lammervanger
"golden eagle, bearded vulture, lammergeyer" < Du lam
"lamb" + vanger
"catcher" (< vangen
"catch, seize")); lekker
(1900-29) pleasant, nice, sweet; good, excellent (< Afrikaans lekker
"nice, delicious, sweet, fine, comfortable" < Du lekker
"nice,
good, pleasant, tasty"; cf. LS lecker);
mealie,
mielie
(1853) an ear of maize, from Afrikaans milie,
ultimately a word of Latin origin; meerkat
(1801) a South African mongoose, from Afrikaans meerkat
(Afrikaans meer
"sea" (> "overseas", "exotic") + kat
"cat"); meisie
(1870-99) a colloquial term denoting "girl" or "young woman" (cf. jong)
in South African English (Afrikaans meisie
"girl, maid, damsel; girlfriend" < Du meisje
"girl, young woman; girlfriend"); melktert
(1930-69) a custard tart (Afrikaans melktert
< melk
"milk" + tert
"tart"); naartje
(1770-99) a soft, loose-skinned South African mandarine,
a tangerine (from Tamil nârattai
"citrus"); naat
(1930-69) an irregularity in the structure of a diamond (Afrikaans naat
"seam, joint" < Du naad
"seam, joint"); oom
(1800-29) denotes either "uncle" (its literal meaning) or "man of power
or prestige"
(Afrikaans
oom
"uncle; (older) man" < Du oom
"uncle"; cf. OE eam
"uncle"!); oubaas
(1830-69) refers to the male head of a family or an elderly man
(Afrikaans oubaas
"boss, master; old gentleman", from ou
"old (man)" + baas
"master, overseer" (< Du oud
"old" + baas
"boss, chief; guy")); oudstryder
(1930-69) an ex-soldier or war-veteran, especially of the South African
War (1899-1902) on the side of the Boers (< Afrikaans oudstryder
"ex-soldier, veteran" from oud
"old" + stryder
"warrior, combatant", cf. Du oud-strijder
"war-veteran"); oupa
(1900-29) a word denoting "grandfather" or term used to address an
elderly man (Afrikaans oupa
"grandfather, grandpa" from ou
"old" + pa
"father"; cf. LS Opa,
oupa
> German Opa
"grandfather"); outjie
(1930-69) a child (< Afrikaans outjie
"little fellow, boy" from ou
"old" + diminutive suffix -tjie);
outspan
(1822) a farmyard area laid off for travellers to rest and refresh
their animals, from Afrikaans uitspan
(uit
"out" + span
"stretch, span"; cf. Du uitspannen
"unharness, unyoke, extend"); platteland
(1930-69) the rural inner regions of South Africa (Afrikaans platteland
"country districts, rural parts" < Du platteland
"countryside" from plat
"flat" + land
"land, province"); poort
(1769-99) in South Africa, a narrow mountain pass, especially one cut
by a waterway (Afrikaans poort
"gate, gateway, entrance; pass" < Du poort
"gate, port, alleyway"); predikant
(1849) a minister in the Dutch Reformed Church (especially in South
Africa), from Afrikaans predikant
< Du predikant
"pastor,
vicar, rector" < Old French; rand
(1830-69) originally a rocky ridge or an area of sloping ground, since
1961 in English denoting the base unit of currency in South Africa
(Afrikaans rand
"brim, edge, rim" < Du rand
"edge, rim, border"); ratel
(1777) a musteline
mammal of Africa and southern Asia, the honey-badger from Afrikaans ratel;
remskoen
(1800-29) a brake made from a wooden or metal shoe used to halt a
wheel; also figuratively used to mean "hindrance" (Afrikaans remskoen
"brake-shoe, lock; unprogressive person" < Du remschoen
"brake shoe" < rem
"brake" + schoen
"shoe"); riem,
riempie
(1800-29) in SA English, a long strip or thong of dressed softened
leather (Afrikaans riem
"thong, strap, belt" < Du riem
"belt, strap" from MDu rieme);
rooikat
a South African lynx (Afrikaans rooikat
< rooi
"red" + kat
"cat"); rooinek
(1870-99) a British or English-speaking South African (Afrikaans rooi
"red" + nek
"neck" < Du rood
"red" + nek
"neck"); schlenter
(1830-69) originally a trick, now a counterfeit diamond (<
Afrikaans slenter
"trick, dodge, roguery" probably from Du slentery
"knavery, trick"); skepsel
(1830-69) a creature, also a villain or a rascal; often used negatively
against indigenous blacks in colloquial speech (< Afrikaans skepsel
"creature, being, wretch" < Du schepsel
"creature"); skoff
(1770-99) a stage of a journey, a period of travel between outspans, a
period of work (from Afrikaans skof
"lap, stage, stretch, march, shift" < Du schoft
"quarter of the day; one of the day’s four meals"); sloot,
sluit
"a ditch for irrigation or drainage" (Afrikaans sloot
"furrow,
trench, ditch"
< Du sloot
"ditch"); spoor
(1823) the trail of a wild animal, from Afrikaans spoor
"track, trail, trace, footprint" (< Du spoor
"track, trail, trace" < MDu
spor,
spoor
"track, trace"); the verb spor
"to track using a trail" appears in 1850, from Afrikaans spoor
from MDu sporen,
formed from spoor;
springbok
(1775) an antelope of the semi desert regions of southern Africa, from
Afrikaans springbok
(spring
"leap" + bok
"antelope" (< MDu
boc
"goat")); springhaas
a South and East African nocturnal rodent resembling a small kangaroo
(Afrikaans springhaas
< Du spring
"leap" and
haas
"hare"); spruit
(1830-69) in SA English, a small watercourse which is dry except in the
rainy season (Afrikaans spruit
"tributary, sidestream,
brook, watercourse, feeder" < Du spruit
"sprout, offshoot"); steenbok
(1775) a small African antelope, from Afrikaans steenbok
(lit.) "stone antelope" (MDu
steenboc
from steen
"stone" + boc
"goat"; cf. Du steenbok
"wild
goat"); stoep
(1822) a veranda, from Afrikaans stoep
"porch, veranda" < Du stoep
"front-door
step, kerb (cf.
American English stoop); swart
gevaar
(1930-69) "the black peril" - referring to the perceived threat to the
western lifestyle posed by the indigenous blacks of South Africa (swart
"black" + gevaar
"danger", cf. Du zwart
+ gevaar);
taal
(1898) "language" (usually implies Afrikaans itself) from Afrikaans taal
< Du taal
"language"; takhaar
(1870-99) in SA English, an unkempt person or a rustic (Afrikaans takhaar
"backwoodsman, hillbilly" < Du tak
"branch" + haar
"hair"); tameletje
(1830-69) a piece of hard toffee containing nuts, taffy, stickjaw candy, also fig. a pain
in the neck (probably from tabletje
"small cake"); togt
(1830-69) originally a trade venture, now denoting casual labour hired for a specific job
(Afrikaans togt
"expedition, journey, voyage" < Du tocht
"journey"); tot
siens
(1930-69) the Afrikaans (cf. Du tot
ziens
"goodbye!" ) equivalent of au revoir, auf
Wiedersehen, på
gjensyn
etc. "until we meet again, until next time, see you!"; trek
(1849) "to migrate" from Afrikaans trek
"journey, travel; pull" < Du trekken
"travel, migrate, march; haul" (ultimately MDu
trecken
"draw, pull"; cf. LS
trecken,
German
ziehen,
Danish drage);
the noun trek
(1849) from Afrikaans trek
"haul, pull; journey, trek" < Du trek
"haul, pull; migration"; veldskoen
(1800-29) a strong but soft suede or leather shoe for walking (<
Afrikaans velskoen
"raw-hide shoe", originally < Du fel
"hide" + schoen
"shoe" with later SA English confusion with veld
"field"); veldt,
veld
(1785: veld)
"open country in South Africa" from Afrikaans veld
"field, pasture, country" < Du veld
"field, open country" < MDu
velt,
veld
"field"; the spelling veldt
first appears in English in 1863; verkrampte
(1930-69) socially conservative in political terms; a conservative
person (< Afrikaans verkrampte
"reactionary, ultra-conservative" < Du verkrampt
"tense, narrow, cramped, contorted"); verligte
(1930-69) progressive; a person who has political views which are such
(< Afrikaans verligte
"enlightened person, liberal" < Du verlicht
"enlightened"); vlakte
(1770-99) a plain or flat open country in South Africa (<
Afrikaans vlakte
"plain, heath" < Du vlakte
"plain"); vlei
(1770-99) in South Africa, a shallow pool of water or land swamped in
the rainy season (Afrikaans vlei
"marsh, swamp, quagmire" < Du vallei
"valley"); voetganger
(1800-29) a pedestrian; an infantryman (Afrikaans voetganger
< Du voetganger
"pedestrian"
from voet
"foot" + ganger
"goer, walker"; cf. LS Footgänger,
Danish fodgænger,
German Fußgänger
"pedestrian"); voetsek
(1830-69) an interjective
requesting the offending body leave "be off with you!" or "go away!";
also a verb meaning "chase away" or "leave" (< Afrikaans,
earlier voertsek
(now voert)
a contraction of Du voort
zeg ik
lit. "away say I"); volk
(1870-99) denotes the Afrikaans people but also frequently used
derogatively about the coloured
employees of a white master (Afrikaans volk
"people, nation; labourers"
< Du volk
"people, folk"); voorkamer
(date?) a front room or drawing-room, especially of a farmhouse
(Afrikaans voorkamer
< Du voorkamer
"living-room" (voor
"before" + kamer
"room")); voorloper
(1830-69) the leader of a span of oxen, often a young coloured boy (< Afrikaans
voorloper
"leader, forerunner; herald, harbinger" < Du voorloper
"precursor, forerunner" from voor
"before" + lopen
"walk, go, run"); voortrekker
(1870-99) a Boer pioneer, one of the original Afrikaaner
settlers of the Transvaal and Orange Free State in the 1830s (<
Afrikaans voortrekker
"pioneer; Voortrekker"
< Du voortrekker
"pioneer" from voor
"before" + trekken
"trek"); wildebeest
(1838) from Afrikaans wildebees
(current spelling) "wild beast" < Du wild
"wild" + beest
"beast, ox"; the English word actually derives from the plural wildebeest;
witblits
(1930-69) in South Africa, an illegally home-brewed brandy (<
Afrikaans witblits
"home-made brandy, moonshine, white smoke" from wit
"white" + blits
"lightning" (cf. Du bliksem,
German Blitz "lightning")); *sources: Barber,
Charles: The English Language: A Historical
Introduction. (Cambridge
Approaches to Linguistics). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993; Barnhart,
Robert, K.: Chambers Dictionary of English Etymology,
Chambers Harrap
Publishers, Edinburgh, 1999; Collins
English Dictionary
(Millennium Edition), HarperCollins Publishers, Glasgow, 1998; Freeborn,
Dennis: From Old English to Standard English.
2nd revised and enlarged edition. London:
Macmillan Press Ltd., 1998; Hoad,
T.F. (ed.): The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English
Etymology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996; Hughes,
Geoffrey: A History of English Words.
Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd., 2000; Hutterer, Claus Jürgen: Die
germanischen Sprachen: Ihre Geschichte in Grundzügen
Akademiai Kiadó, Budapest, 1998; Jespersen,
Otto: Growth and Structure of the English Language.
Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1956; Lindow,
Wolfgang: Plattdeutsches
Wörterbuch.
Institut für Niederdeutsche
Sprache, Bremen.
Leer: Schuster, 1984; Oxford
English Dictionary.
Second Edition on CD-ROM, Version 4.0. Saß,
Johannes: Kleines
Plattdeutsches Wörterbuch. Neumünster: Karl Wachholz Verlag, (16. Auflage)
1992; Serjeantson,
M.S.: A History of Foreign Words in English,
London, 1935; Speake,
J. (ed.): The Oxford Dictionary of Foreign Words and
Phrases. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998; Tweetalige
Woordenboek/Bilingual
Dictionary,
Afrikaans>Engels. Bosman,
D.B., van der Merwe,
I.W. & Hiemstra,
L.W. Kaapstad: Pharos Woordeboeke, 1998; Van Dale Handwoordenboek Nederlands-Engels. Utrecht: Van Dale Lexicografie (pub. and ed.),
derde druk, 1996; de Vries, Jan: Nederlands
Etymologisch Woordenboek. Utrecht:
Het Spectrum, 1997; Wyld,
H. C.: The Historical Study of the Mother Tongue,
Maskell House
Pub., N.Y., 1968. *Credits: Many
thanks to Reinhard Hahn
- a speaker, writer and passionate supporter of Low Saxon - for his
friendly and expert advice concerning the structure and content of this
article. ©
Edward Smith 2012 |
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