From: Brian M. Scott
Message: 33526
Date: 2004-07-15
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott"No. 'Conjectural' here referred to the proposed
> <BMScott@...> wrote:
>> At 4:07:43 AM on Wednesday, July 14, 2004, tgpedersen
>> wrote:
>>> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott"
>>> <BMScott@...> wrote:
>>>> At 7:37:40 AM on Tuesday, July 13, 2004, tgpedersen
>>>> wrote:
>>>>> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott"
>>>>> <BMScott@...> wrote:
>>>>>> Künzel, Blok, & Verhoeff, Lexicon van nederlandse
>>>>>> toponiemen tot 1200, have the citation <Philippus de
>>>>>> Wasnare> 1200 [1305] and say: wrsch. onl. _hare_
>>>>>> 'hoogte, heuvelrug' met bijv. nw. _wasn_ (< dativus
>>>>>> singularis *_hwassan_) 'scherp' (vgl. oe. _hwass_).
>>>>> Given Swedish vass 'reed(s)' (I think most Lexicon etc
>>>>> writers wouldn't be aware that it existed),
>>>> Seems a strange assumption; the word's in every
>>>> Swedish-English bilingual that I own, in both directions,
>>>> and is described as 'common'. (I'm not sure what you mean
>>>> by 'Lexicon etc writers'; all three authors are serious
>>>> toponymists.)
>>> That may be so. It seems an obvious choice, so I just
>>> puzzled it wasn't discussed or even mentioned. Do you have
>>> a better explanation of why that is so?
>> To the best of my knowledge the word is completely isolated
>> even within N.Gmc., unless one assumes that it belongs with
>> <vada> 'to wade', which is already pretty conjectural and
>> also requires a semantic development that could not
>> reasonably be assumed elsewhere.
> Ordbog over det danske Sprog has a 'vasse' "wade", fig.
> "move clumsily, as if wading through water", dialectal and
> loaned from Norwegian. There goes your 'conjectural'.
> Second, if we assume the root is Nordwestblock,I'm not likely to; I'm not persuaded that the term is