--- In cybalist@..., "Marc Verhaegen" <marc.verhaegen@...> wrote:
> >Sounds a little like the Dutch Kattegat (quade Gat)
> >= evil hole. JS Crary
>
>
> Are you sure that the older name for "Kattegat" was "quade Gat"? I
thought
> the word came from Scandinavian or so. Volksetymological
reinterpretation?
>
> Marc
No I'm not. I got it from
http://w1.1482.telia.com/~u148200505/mads/Artikler/sch_teutoner.htm
where the writer assumes a relation to *cod- in Sinus Codanus.
Dutch /kwaad/ "evil, bad" has no cognates that I know of in
Scandinavian. /gat/ in modern Danish is used exclusively of the
spawning etc orifice of fish. In Dutch /gat/ is "hole" and /katte(n?)
gat/ is "loophole".
Torsten