On 2008-06-18 20:06, Rick McCallister wrote:
> Any chance that wae:di is the source of English wad? I read some
> convoluted history (Partridge?) that traces it back to Egyptian wadi via
> Egyptian Arabic but OE wae:d seems more immediate
Unlikely. The word (spelt <wadde>) was first used in an English source
(a French dialogue containing occasional Middle English words) ca. 1420
with the meaning 'small bundle of straw used as a pad beneath a horse's
girth to prevent chafing' (acc. to the MED), and 'small bundle, roll of
padding' has remained its core meaning ever since then. It seems to be
of Romance/Anglo-Latin extraction in English, and is clearly a
widespread wanderwort (cf. Fr. ouate, Ger. Watte, even Pol. wata)
perhaps ultimately Arabic, but I'd have to check that.
OE wæ:d (OAngl. we:d) is normaly reflected in ME as we:d(e), a very
frequent word, often collocated with nouns referring to people
recognisable by their characteristic clothing ("garb"), like <pilgrims
wede>, <palmers w.>, <a religious w.>, <monkys w.>, <wedow w.>, etc.
Torsten's armour word was also used in ME: <here-wedis> (as late as the
early 15th c.), but also <steel/iren wedes> etc., and <wede> could mean
'piece of armour, coat of mail' even without any adjectives.
Piotr