Re: German 'duzen' and 'siezen' - etymology ?

Henrik Theiling wrote:

>> quoting me:
>> Fear of intimacy.
>
> Hm?  Definitely not.  Rejection of intimacy due to inappropriateness.
> I don't fear intimacy, I find it impolite in some situations.
>
> There are different situations in this world which differ in whether
> intimacy is appropriate or not.  Ikea's marketing is one where it is
> not.  We could perhaps agree that cultures differ in the selection of
> situations that allow intimacy.
Yes I think we could. But this section of culture is deeply ingrained
with our instinctive nature on a very deep level, and thus
particularly interesting for conculturing, I think. The way we
classify our relationships is "basically" very simple: intimate,
distant, and hostile. It's a three-way switch hard-wired into the
human brain. Because I do not want our relationship to enter the
latter category, I will not prod you further. Though I would have
loved to know exactly how it feels to be accosted with unwanted
intimacy in a near and yet so distant culture as yours, I fear we
still after some 40-50 millennia of con- and natlanging have yet to
develop a language to communicate it adequately. Perhaps only a song/
poem will do. And of course, individuality and emotional changes as
well as the complex cultural overlay upon the simple natural basis
makes every different instance of such accosting full of different
nuances even within the same culture.

LEF