From: Daniel J. Milton
Message: 45222
Date: 2006-07-04
>******
> I´ve started a discussion about the moon with my mother on how old the
> worship of the moon may be. Halfway into this discussion I reminded
> myself of a word I saw in Hellquists linguistic dictionary over the
> swedish tongue, namely tungel.
>
> This word tungel meant star or moon in older swedish and can still be
> found in dialects all over Sweden. I was very intrigued to find that
> both german and english had had this word too, in the same meaning. In
> old german it can be found as Zungal, old saxon as tungal and in old
> english as tungol. It seems to have died out on the continent. Anyone
> who can explain this word to me? It does not correspond with any of
> the other words for moon or star or even heavenly body, which was the
> main meaning in old swedish.
>
> Carl Hult