Page:An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language.djvu/153

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Hahn, m., ‘cock,’ from MidHG. han, OHG. hano, m.; comp. AS. hana (as well as cocc, E. cock), OIc. hane, Goth. hana, m.; a common Teut. word for ‘cock,’ with the stem hanan-, hanin-, which is common to the OTeut. dialects. A corresponding fem. Henne is merely West Teut.; OHG. hęnna, MidHG. and ModHG. hęnne, f., AS. hęnn. On the other hand, Huhn seems to be really of common gender; it may at least be applied in OHG. to ‘cock’ also; comp. Otfried’s êr thaȥ huan singe, ‘before the cock crows,’ lit. ‘sings.’ In this passage we have a confirmation of the fact that the crowing of the cock was regarded as its song. The term Hahn by general acceptation signifies ‘singer.’ With this word, according to the laws of substitution, the stem of Lat. canere, ‘to sing’ (comp. Lith. gaidýs, ‘cock,’ lit. ‘singer,’ allied to gêdoti, ‘to sing’). A fem., ‘songstress,’ of Huhn is hardly conceivable; thus it follows that Henne is merely a recent West Teut. form. The common gender Huhn, however, can hardly be connected with the root kan, ‘to sing,’ since it is, at least, a primit. form. The method of its formation, as the name of the agent, has no analogies.

Hahnrei, m., ‘cuckold,’ ModHG. only; of obscure origin; in earlier G. it signifies ‘capon.’ Its figurative sense, ‘cuckold,’ derived from ‘capon,’ agrees with the expression Hörner tragen, lit. ‘to wear horns.’ Formerly the spur was frequently cut of and placed as a horn in the comb; the hoodwinked husband is thus compared to a capon. On account of the earlier variant Hahnreh, we may regard Hahnrei as a compound of Reh.

Hai, m., simply ModHG., from the equiv. Du. haai, f., ‘shark,’ Swed. haj, Ic. há-r.

Hain, m., ‘grove,’ made current by Klopstock as a poetical term. The form of the word, as is shown under Hagen (1), may be traced back to MidHG., in which, however, Hain is but a rare variant of Hagen; it signified orig. ‘thorn-bush, thorn, fence, abatis, enclosed place.’ Thus the word does not imply the idea of sacredness which Klopstock blended with it.

Hake, Hahen, m., ‘hook, clasp,’ from MidHG. hâke, hâken, m., OHG. hâko, hâcko, m., ‘hook.’ The HG. k can neither be Goth. k nor Goth. g; the former would be changed into ch, the latter would remain unchanged. The variants OHG. hâgo, hâggo,

MidHG. hâgge, point to Goth. *hêgga, n., ‘hook’ (comp. Raupe, Schuppe). Curiously, however, the corresponding words of the cognate dialects have k and are graded: AS. hôc, m., ‘hook,’ E. hook, MidDu. hoek, ‘hook’; comp. also Du. haak, AS. hăca, OIc. hăke, m., ‘hook.’ The relations of the gutturals (especially of the gg) are still obscure; comp. also Kluppe, Schuppe, Kautz, Schnauze. A typical form is wanting. It it is impossible to connect the word hangen, Goth. hâhan (for hanhan); it ia more probably related to Hechel and Hecht.

halb, adj., ‘half,’ from MidHG. halp, OHG. halb (gen. halbes). adj.; comp. OSax. and LG. half, Du. half, AS. healf, E. half, OIc. hálfr, Goth. halbs, adj.; the common Teut. adj. for HG. halb; there are no undoubted cognates in the non-Teut. languages (Teut. halba-, from pre-Teut. kalbho-). The fem. of the adj. is used in OTeut. as a subst. in the sense of ‘side, direction’; Goth. halba, OIc. halfa, OHG. halba, MidHG. halbe, OSax. halƀa; hence it might seem as if the adj. had orig. some such meaning as ‘lateral, that which lies on one side.’ But in any case the adj. in the sense of ‘half’ was purely a numeral in primit. Teut.; the ModHG. method of reckoning anderthalb (11/2), drittehalb (21/2), viertehalb (31/2), is common to Teut.; comp. OIc. halfr annarr (11/2), halfr þriþe (21/2), halfr fjorþe (31/2); AS. ôþer healf, þridde healf, feorþe healf; even in MidE. this enumeration exists (it is wanting in E.); in HG. it has been retained from the earliest period.

halb, halben, prep., ‘on account of,’ from MidHG. halp, halbe, halben, ‘on account of, by reason of, from, concerning’; prop. a case of the MidHG. subst. halbe, f., ‘side,’ mentioned under halb (adj.), hence construed with the gen.; MidHG. mîn-halp, dîn-halp, der herren halbe, sëhens halben, ‘on my, thy account, on the gentlemen's account, for the sake of seeing.’ Similarly the ModHG. halber, ‘on account of,’ recorded in the 15th cent., is a petrified form of the inflected adj.; so too halben, dat. plur., halbe, halp, from OHG. halb, probably an instr. sing. (since Notker halb has been used as a prep.). This usage is also found in the other Teut. languages; comp. OIc. af-halfu, MidE. on-, bi-halfe; Goth. in þizai halbai, ‘in this respect.’

Halde, f., ‘precipice, declivity, slope,’ from MidHG. halde, OHG. halda, f., ‘mountain declivity.’ OIc. hallr, ‘hill, slope,’