Re: Scots.
From: | Lars Finsen <lars.finsen@...> |
Date: | Saturday, July 19, 2008, 20:34 |
Den 19. jul. 2008 kl. 20.30 skreiv Philip Newton:
>
>
> Much study has failed to prove that O.E. dream "noisy
> merriment" is the root of the modern word for "sleeping vision,"
> despite being identical in spelling. Either the meaning of the word
> changed dramatically or "vision" was an unrecorded secondary O.E.
> meaning of dream, or there are two separate words here. "It seems as
> if the presence of dream 'joy, mirth, music,' had caused dream 'dream'
> to be avoided, at least in literature, and swefn, lit. 'sleep,' to be
> substituted" [OED].
Very interesting. Perhaps the solution is that Modern English dream
is a borrowing from O.N. draumr "dream"?
LEF
Reply