Page:An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language.djvu/189

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seems to indicate that the plant was brought from the Netherlands and France, Du. aard-appel, Fr. pomme de terre. The dial. Grumbire is due to a similar conception, its orig. form being Grundbirne. Tuffeln is a shortened form of Kartoffel, resulting from the position of the accent (comp. Kürbis from cucúrbita). The rarer dial. Bataten (Franc.), which corresponds to E. potato, is based upon Ital. and Span. patata, the final source of which is an American word. Potatoes were introduced in the 17th cent. from America into Spain and Italy, and were transplanted from these countries to the north.

Käse, m., ‘cheese,’ from the equiv. MidHG. kœse, OHG. châsi, m.; Lat. câseus (whence also OIr. caise), before the 5th cent. at the latest was adopted in the vernacular form câsius (variant căscus?) by the Teutons; comp. Du. kaas, AS. čŷse, E. cheese. It corresponds in Rom. to Ital. cacio, Span. queso; yet câseus was supplanted in the dials. at an early date by Lat. *formaticus, ‘(cheese) mould’; comp. Fr. fromage (Ital. formaggio). OIc. has a peculiar word for ‘cheese,’ ostr, in Goth. perhaps *justs (comp. Finn. juusto, ‘cheese’); the assumed Goth. *justs is connected etymologically with Lat. jus, ‘broth,’ OSlov. jucha, ‘soup,’ OInd. yûšán, ‘soup’ (comp. Jauche), the root of which is yu, ‘to mix,’ in Lith. jáuju, jáuti, ‘to mix (dough).’ From this collocation of terms it is probable that *justs is the OTeut. word for ‘cheese,’ and that the Teutons did not learn how to make cheese from the Southerners, but only an improved method of doing so when they adopted the term Käse from them. It is true that according to Pliny, Hist. Nat. xi. 41, the barbarians generally were not acquainted with the method; yet comp. also Butter.

Kastanie, f., ‘chestnut’; comp. OHG. chęstinna, MidHG. kę́stene, kę́sten, kastânie. The latter is evidently a return to the orig. form, Lat. castanea, which had already been transformed to kęstenne (comp. UpG. Kešte). Moreover, OHG. chęstinna and AS. čisten (čistenbeám, MidHG. kestenboum, E. chestnut) point to a Lat. *castinia, *castinja. Comp. Fr. châtaigne, Ital. castagna, ‘chestnut.’ The Lat. word is derived from the equiv. Gr. καστανέα, -νεια, -νειον, -νον; the chestnut was named from the town of Κάστανα, in Pontus.

kasteien, vb., ‘to chastise,’ from MidHG. kastîgen (g for j), kę̂stigen, OHG. chęs-

tîgôn, ‘to chastise, punish’; the alteration of the accent and the vowels corresponds to that in Kastanie (which see) compared with the dial. Keste. Lat. castîgare (whence also Fr. châtier, and further E. chastise) was adopted on the introduction of Christianity (comp. Kreuz, Priester, and predigen) from ecclesiastical Lat.; OHG. chę̂stîgôn, like many words borrowed in the OHG. period (see predigen), was accented after the G. method.

Kasten, m., ‘chest,’ from the equiv. MidHG. kaste, OHG. chasto, m.; this word, which is at all events really Teut., is wanting in the rest of the OTeut. dials. Goth. *kasta, ‘receptacle,’ may be connected with kasa-, ‘vessel,’ so that the dental would be a derivative; yet kas signifies specially ‘an earthen vessel, pot’ (comp. kasja, ‘potter’). This Goth. kas, moreover, became char in OHG. by the normal change of s into r; in the ModHG. literary speech it is now wanting, but it appears in MidHG. binen-kar, upon which ModHG. Bienenkorb is based.

Kater, m., ‘tom-cat,’ from the equiv. MidHG. kater, katere, m., OHG. chataro, m.; the r of Kater appears to be a masc. suffix; comp. Morder and Mord, Tauber and Taube; Enter-ich and Ente?, Ganser and Gans?, &c., Comp. Katze.

Kattun, m., ‘cotton, calico,’ from the equiv. MidHG. kottûn, m., which is again derived from Du. kattoen, Fr. coton, equiv. to E. cotton.

Katze, f., ‘cat,’ from the equiv. MidHG. katze, OHG. chazza, f.; a common Europ. word in the Mid. Ages and in modern times; of obscure origin. Comp. also AS. catt, m., E. cat; OIc. kǫttr, m. These assume Goth. *katta, *kattus. Early MidLat. cattus and its Rom. derivatives (Ital. gatto, Fr. chat), Ir. and Gael. cat, m., and Slav. kotǔ, ‘tom-cat,’ Lith. katě, ‘cat', kátinas, ‘tom-cat’ (allied to Serv. kotiti, ‘to litter,’ &c., kot, ‘brood, litter’), suggest the possibility that the Teut. term was borrowed from a neighbouring race after the period of the Teut. substitution of consonants, at latest a century before or after the migration of the tribes. It is a remarkable fact, however, that G. retains a prim. and independent masc. form of the word in Kater (Goth. *kaduza?), which also occurs in Du. and LG. kater (comp. E. caterwaul).

kauderwelsch, adj., ‘jargon,’ first occurs in early ModHG. allied to an unexplained vb. kaudern, ‘to talk unintelligibly,’