From: tgpedersen
Message: 59984
Date: 2008-09-12
>'Vist' in the front field position means "of course, certainly", in
> At 5:23:45 PM on Thursday, September 11, 2008, tgpedersen wrote:
>
> > --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott"
> > <BMScott@> wrote:
>
> >> At 2:45:06 PM on Thursday, September 11, 2008, tgpedersen
> >> wrote:
>
> [...]
>
> >>> But cf. PGmc. *winistra-, Da. venstre "left". That would
> >>> make north the preferred direction.
>
> >> I'll go with Ordbog over det Danske Sprog:
>
> >> komp.-dannelse til stammen i I. Ven; egl.: "den
> >> gunstigere" (vist opr. eufem. betegnelse for den side, der
> >> betragtedes som den uheldige)
>
> > Not exactly strikingly convincing.
>
> I find it quite plausible; the phenomenon is common enough.
>
> > In case you don't know, Da. vist might originally have
> > been semantically aligned with German gewiss, but now it
> > means something like "most likely, on the balance, I
> > guess".
>
> When it doesn't mean 'certainly'.
>
> German has nothing to do with it; any interference in my
> case would come from ON <víst> or Swedish <visst>, both of
> which are stronger than Danish <vist>. (With Danish I'm
> pretty careful to check the dictionary even when I think
> that I recognize a word.)