[093/20] ALLERA MÀNNELIK JEF TO AN MERY FRU ÀND BLÍDE
(ÀND NINMAN NÉDE DIGER THAN TO ÁKANE SINA NOCHT)
1876: Sandbach:
everybody gave himself up to pleasure and merry-making,
(and no one thought of anything but diversion)
2019: Ott:
All surrendered to joy and happiness
(and none cared about anything but seeking pleasure)
Etymology merry according to etymonline.com:
Middle English mirie, from Old English myrge "pleasing, agreeable, pleasant, sweet, exciting feelings of enjoyment and gladness" (said of grass, trees, the world, music, song); also as an adverb, "pleasantly, melodiously," [...] The only exact cognate for meaning outside English was Middle Dutch mergelijc "joyful." [...] There also was a verbal form in Old English, myrgan "be merry, rejoice." [...]
mergelijc and blide in Roman van Lancelot (13th century), published 1846-'49, p. 236 |
merghet in van Maerlant's Der naturen bloeme (1287), published 1857 p. 275 |
If the OLB would be a 19th century creation, it would have to have been made by someone (or a team) who knew very much about the oldest sources of Dutch and its sibbling languages. Why would they have written MERY only and leave out the G?
We have often seen that subsidised etymology often has no clue and merely guesses.
Mother with child by Lehmbruck (1881-1919) |
Most people would assume the name stems from Jesus' mother Maria, but where did her name originate? It will be much older than that.
Of course, all Wikipedia-like sources will theorise or claim a Hebrew origin and meaning of the name, but who still considers them trustworthy?
The psychological effect of believing that your name is (only or mostly) of Biblical origin and therefore Hebrew must be significant. This is only one example of what I think is a much larger phenomenon.
I suggest we consider the possibility that the name Mary and the word merry stem from the same origin which may be much older than anything Hebrew.
No comments:
Post a Comment