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PREAMBLE: Linguistic similarities in words, identical in form and meaning,
are unlikely to result from independent parallel development. Similarities
of this sort are relatively easily identified by requiring that these
similarities recur systematically in a fairly large set of related synonyms.
This method of verification furnishes us with insights that make it possible
to detect 'culture contact' where we do not have direct historical evidence
indicating that such contact occurred.
So far, I have dealt with such terms as: 'bind', 'net' and gird. This time
around I will deal with the term 'shackle' a synonym to 'bind'.
http://www.theegyptianchronicles.com/LINKS/SHKL.html
SHACKLE.
Sadly, nowadays the subject of "shackles" used as devices of human restraint
and oppression in many cultures, seems to be of a common occurrence. Yet
the history of this device started innocently in pastoral cultures as a
means for the herdsman to fasten a beast, lest it wander around. Today,
there is not a day that passes by in the news, where the reader does not
come across the term "shackles" applied to various situations. Like that of
throwing off the "shackle" of tyranny, based upon an inner freedom which
makes possible the relinquishing of outer shackles and chains that oppress
us.
Below is an investigation of this term which is classified by the OED as "of
uncertain origin " (1)
All etymologists are in agreement that the original meaning of the term
"shackle" appears to be of "something to fasten or attach". Beyond that
point all tracks seem to have gone cold. Hence, the English Oxford
Dictionary, despite numerous failed attempts, has classified the term as: of
doubtful and unknown origin.
The term first appeared around the year 1000 CE in the work of the
Anglo-Saxon King Ælfric. Unfortunately information about Ælfric's life is
scarce and can often only be guessed at.
No published biography exists (such as Asser's Life of King Alfred for the
earlier king of Wessex) and therefore what little information we have has to
be drawn from references in his own writings, and our knowledge of the
historical events towards the end of the tenth century. Accepted dating,
however, places his birth c.950 and his death c.1010.
Since Ælfric was the most prolific known writer from the Old English period,
it was vital to etymologists to search among his sources. It is well known
that Ælfric was a keen student of Biblical writings, a fact attested to, by
his often use of the wealth of classical and biblical allusions in his
writings.
AN INVESTIGATION INTO BIBLICAL WRITINGS LEADS TO A DEAD END
Unfortunately, no where is the term "shackle" to be found in the
Hebrew/Aramaic Old Testament text, nor in the New Testament written in the
Greek language. In Hebrew/Aramaic, the terms for ''shackle" are Ziyqah,
Kebel, and Nekhosheth (In Arabic, a sister language, their cognates would
respectively be: Diyq, Kabbal, and Nah.h.as). While in Greek, the term for
"shackle" is Pede.
"SHACKLE" IN SHAKESPEARE'S WORK
It was over half a millennium down the road that the term "shackle" was
reintroduced in the English language, and popularized in Shakespeare's play
: All's Well That Ends Well, when the king said in Act 2, Scene 3
My honour's at the stake; which to defeat,
I must produce my power. Here, take her hand,
Proud scornful boy, unworthy this good gift;
That dost in vile misprision shackle up
My love and her desert; that canst not dream,"
.
Now compare with:
Classical Arabic: شكل
shkl (n. & v.) = to shackle, a shackle .
والشِّكَال: العِقَال، والجمع شُكْلٌ؛ وشَكَلْت الطائرَ وشَكَلْت الفرسَ
بالشَّكَال.
وشَكَل الدَّابَّة يَشْكُلها شَكْلاً وشَكَّلَها: شَدَّ قوائمها بحَبْل، واسم
ذلك الحَبْلِ الشِّكَالُ، والجمع شُكُلٌ
He bound the horse (or the beast ) with the shkAl, i.e. he bound the legs
of the horse (literally: he shackled the horse) in like manner, he shackled
a bird.
In addition, 'shkl' may also mean: He bound the camel's 'shkAl' between the
fore girth and the hind girth in order that the hind girth might not become
too near to the sheath of the beast's penis.
Shkl-t : A woman plaited two locks of her hair, of the fore part of her
head, on the right and the left, and then bound with them her other pendent
locks or plaits.
Note: The common notion of something 'to fasten or attach' in the above
definitions are identical.in Classical Arabic and in the various Germanic
dialects.
http://www.theegyptianchronicles.com/LINKS/SHKL.html
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FOOTNOTE
(1) shackle (n.) O.E. sceacel, from P.Gmc. *skakula- (cf. M.Du., Du. schakel
"link of a chain," O.N. skökull "pole of a carriage"), of uncertain origin.
The common notion of "something to fasten or attach" makes a connection with
shake unlikely. The verb is first recorded mid-15c. Related: Shackled;
shackling.
sceacel, es; m. I. a shackle :-- Sceacul vel bend columbar, Wrt. Voc. i. 16,
44. II. the word also glosses plectrum :-- Scecele oððe slegele scecen wé
plectra plumemus, ii. 66, 78-80. Sceacelas plectra, 89, 10. [Prompt. Parv.
schakkyl numella. Ancren schulen ine so wide scheakeles pleien ine hevuene .
. . Þet tet bodi schal beon hwar so euer þe gost wule in one hondhwule, A.
R. 94, 25. O. Du. schakel the link or ring of a chain: Icel. skökull the
pole of a carriage: Swed. skakel the loose shaft of a carriage: Dan. skagle
a trace for a carriage.] v. sweor-sceacel; sceacan.
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Ishinan
January 21, 2012