Re: [tied] Barrrows and burgs.

----- Original Message -----

From: Marc Verhaegen

To: cybalist@egroups.com

Sent: Sunday, September 17, 2000 11:30 PM

Subject: Re: [tied] Barrrows and burgs.

 

Well done, Marc, though the first element is perhaps more plausibly a noun (*berga- < *bHergH-o- 'high place'). Belfry is then a Germanic compound, *berg-friT- 'high-place shelter' > Old French berfrei(t)/berfroi(t) 'movable siege tower' > Northern Old French belfroi 'siege tower, watchtower, bell-tower' (with r..r > l..r dissimilation, cf. Le Belfroi in the centre of Bruges, whereas dissimilatory r-loss has produced Modern French beffroi 'watchtower, belfry').

 

Belfroi was borrowed into Middle English as belfrei and folk-etymologised as 'bell-something' already in the 13th century (though it continued to be used in the meaning 'wooden siege tower'). Now people find it hard to believe that belfry originally had nothing to do with bells.

 

Piotr

 

 

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A small quiz: what's the origin of the word belfry?    Piotr

 

Seems to come from "bergen" (=to save) + "vrede" (=peace). Franconian>French>English: bergfrid>berfri>belfri?

 

Marc