At 12:39 am +0100 2/12/00, Henrik Theiling wrote:
[....]
>
>My `Kluge' etymological dictionary of German says `Samstag' is older
>than 9th century in German and was `sambaztag' or `samiztag' in Old
>High German. It further says it's origin is Latin `sabbatum' from
>Hebrew `sabbat'. So German and French words have the same root, but
>the German word was not taken from French.
Thanks - I stand corrected. I was passing on erroneous info I'd picked up
somewhere. I guess one should always check out the sources.
'sambaz-' would suggest a borrowing from Vulgar Latin *sambato-
Ray.
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A mind which thinks at its own expense
will always interfere with language.
[J.G. Hamann 1760]
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