Contested Etymologies PDF Download

Author: Hensleigh Wedgwood
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781330661543
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 206

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Book Description
Excerpt from Contested Etymologies: In the Dictionary of the Rev. W. W. Skeat Akimbo. - Professor Skeat, in his Appendix, gives up the derivation from on-cam-bow, i.e., literally, "in-a-bend-bend," in favour of the Icel. keng-boginn, bent into the form of a staple, crooked, from kengr, a staple, bend, bight. But this word does not appear ever to have been applied to the position of the arms in the sense of akimbo, and it is extremely difficult to suppose that such a word could have been caught up out of Icel. or Norse into E., and used exclusively in a special application which it never had in its native language. Moreover, the derivation does not agree with the form akem-boll, vouched by Cotgrave and Torriano. "Se quarrir, to square it, carry his arms akemboll. - Anse, the handle or ear of a pot, cup, &c. Les bras courbes en anse, with arms akemboll" - Cot. " With arms set on kemboll, le braccia in croce." - Torr. Kimbo, or kembow, and kenebow might well be developed out of kemboll, but hardly the converse. Amercement. - The expression of being at the mercy of another is common to English, French, and Spanish, in the sense of being liable to be dealt with as severely as his compassion will allow. Thus Villehardouin: "Se il le fesoit, il seroit en la merci du roi, de cors et d'avoir: " he would be at the mercy of the king both as to body and goods. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.