From: tgpedersen
Message: 33537
Date: 2004-07-15
> At 8:06:33 AM on Thursday, July 15, 2004, tgpedersen wrote:Yes, yes. Let's humor you a bit and assume there is no Nordwestblock
>
> >>>> 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'.
>
> >> No. 'Conjectural' here referred to the proposed
> >> relationship, not to the existence of the word. I already
> >> knew about Norwegian <vasse> 'to wade'; its existence is
> >> the only reason even to consider the possibility of a
> >> relationship in the first place.
>
> > Tsk-tsk.
> > And presumably the reason you didn't mention it in the
> > first place.
>
> Why bother? As far as I'm concerned, it has little bearing
> on the point that was actually at issue, namely, why one
> wouldn't spend much time on <vass> 'reed' in etymologizing a
> Dutch place-name. I gave you the one outside possibility of
> a relative of which I'm aware and pointed out why, even if
> it were legitimate, it wouldn't be particularly helpful to
> you; that seemed quite adequate for a brief answer to a
> question that it hardly seemed necessary to ask.
>