Re: [tied] Tawjan

This is mainly for Marc Verhaegen's eyes, regarding all those Germanic cords and strings we've pulled together.

 

OE tawian, p. tawode (< *taw-o:-j-an-) is a pretty frequent verb, meaning 'dress, prepare (material)', and the direct ancestor of Modern English taw. I haven't been able to check the meaning of the potentially corresponding Old/Middle High German verb. I only know that it exists.

 

OE also had te:agan/te:an, p. te:ade (< *tau-j-an-), which is much rarer but seems to have had the same meaning as tawian. Its correspond formally to the Gothic, Runic and West Germanic cognates.

 

There is also OE tawa (< *taw-o:n-), the meaning of which is somewhat uncertain; OE dictionaries define it as '(some kind of) tool', and it reportedly has an Old Dutch cognate meaning '(a weaver's) tool'

 

Finally, we have Modern English tool < OE to:l < *to:(u)-la-n, and of course tow < OE to:w < *to:w-a- '(scutched, pre-processed) fibres for rope-making'. This seems to be the derivative connecting the *tau- word-family with ropes and cords.

 

The Oxford Dictionary posits PGmc. *tau-/*to:u- 'make, prepare'. The most convincigly reconstructable member of this etymon is the weak verb (in two morphological flavours) *taw-o:-j-an-/*tau-j-an-. Eric Partridge ventures IE *do(:)u- 'make with hands', but he's hardly a reliable etymologists; at any rate he offers no non-Germanic cognates, which makes the reconstruction a mere guess.

 

Piotr