At 8:00:40 AM on Sunday, March 30, 2008, tgpedersen wrote:
[...]
> Dansk Etymologisk Ordbog:
> lange "the codfish species Molva Vulgaris" [ ie. "ling"
> http://ca.encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_762509212/ling.html
> ] ODa., No. id. Sw. långa, ON langa, side form Germ. Länge,
> Dui. leng, ling (whence Fr. lingue), Engl. ling, der. from
> 'lang' ["long"]
> Somehow I doubt that last piece of information.
It seems to be a widely-held view, and there's no obvious
objection.
SAOB s.v. <långa>: OSw. longa; cf. Dan. & Nor. lange, Isl.
langa, MLG lange, Du. leng, ling (whence Fr. lingue), Ger.
länge, Eng. ling; deriv. of LÅNG
OED s.v. <ling>: ME. lenge, lienge, later ling(e (whence,
according to Hatz.-Darm., F. lingue); cf. early mod.Du.
lenghe, linghe (now leng), G. leng, länge, lange, ON. langa,
Sw. långa, Norw. langa, longa, Da. længe. Connexion with
LONG a. is probable.
AHD4 s.v. <ling>: ME, possibly of LG origin, with a
reference to a PIE root *del-(1), where a stronger assertion
is made: that it's from ME <lenge, ling, ling>, from a LG
source akin to Dutch <lenghe, linghe>, 'long one', from PGmc
*langitho:.
Incidentally, ON <langa> was borrowed into OIr as <langa>.
Brian