Re: [tied] Re: hello

From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 12470
Date: 2002-02-24

To be precise, <wassail> shows Norse influence -- its oldest (12th c.) Middle English forms (<washail, wesseyl>, etc.) approximate ON *ves/ver heill (also <sit heill>) rather than OE *wes ha:l 'be in good health' (like <hail!>, reflecting ON heill, the native English cognate being ModE whole < OE ha:l). The actually attested phrase in OE was <ha:l wes þu:>), which, however, was just a greeting, not a drinking formula (used when handing a cup to the next party guest). The latter probably arose among the Norse settlers in England, gaining wide currency among their English neighbours as well, so that by the 12th century it seemed to Norman writers that its use was an inevitable part of drinking "more Saxonico". The original reply of the next drinker to whom the cup was offered was probably *drekk heill 'drink in good health', Anglicised as <drinkhail>. The OED says that according to late 12th-century reports English students at Paris University were greatly given to wassailing and drinkhailing.
 
Piotr
 
 
 
----- Original Message -----
From: paul mortimer
To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sunday, February 24, 2002 9:13 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] Re: hello

Thank you all for your responses to the above.


Somehow I thought it may be related to Anglo-Saxon wasshail but it seems
not.