From: Torsten
Message: 67275
Date: 2011-03-21
>That struck me too. I wonder whether the Saxon invasion in Britain was not so much pull as push; perhaps they were fleeing a new and oppressive Bastarnian regime? Udolph points out that many English place names come not from Angeln and Saxony, as expected, but from Westphalia.
> >Knecht ´´< OHG kneht "Knabe, Jüngling, Bursche; Kerl; Junggeselle;
> >Diener, Knappe, Edelknabe; Krieger, Soldat, Held; Lehrling,
> >Geselle";
> >
> >engl. knight "Ritter" < westgermanisch knehta- "Knabe, Jüngling"
>
> Curious semantic divergent evolutions in German and in English:
> the initial "boy" becomes a serf & servant in German (up to day:
> a _Knecht_ is the subordinate agrar worker for a Bauer "a landed
> farmer (owner!)"; the Knecht's female counterpart is _die Magd_.).
> But in English, the initial "boy" becomes a _knight_, i.e. an
> (aristocratic) member of the "upper class". The German Knecht
> isn't even a "free peasant".
>
> (Cf. "servant boy" OE cnafa > knave "deceitful person, tricky")