Re: Morimarusa

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Torsten" <tgpedersen@...> wrote:

>
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott" <BMScott@> wrote:
> >
> > At 11:55:21 AM on Sunday, December 27, 2009, Torsten wrote:
> >
> > [...]
> >
> > > On a tangent: preserved *k- in
> > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katzenelnbogen#Etymology
> > > it seems.
> >
> > Not really.
> >
> > Although Tischner is a bit of a nut ('Beim Vergleich der
> > alten Sprachen Europas, Westasiens und Nordafrikas lassen
> > sich viele gemeinsame Wurzeln rekonstruieren, die auf eine
> > gemeinsame Grundsprache wohl noch ins Mesolithikum
> > zurückgeht. Ich nenne diese Grundsprache in Anlehnung an die
> > Bibel "noachitisch"'), the information at
> > <http://www.heinrich-tischner.de/22-sp/8namen/1ort/siedlung/kazeneln.htm>
> > seems to be reasonably well-supported.
>
> Wonder how the Katzen- part came to mean something minderwertiges ...

<Katzentisch> and <Katzenbank> probably represent the original figurative usage, with the fanciful imagery of tables and chairs for cats. In Washington's time, small beer referred to beer with low alcohol content, which is minderwertig for most of us. Thus, 'cat-' > 'small' > 'having small value'.

DGK