Page:An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language.djvu/209

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cynestôl, ‘king's seat,’ i.e. ‘throne,’ cynerice, equiv. to OHG chunirîhhi, ‘kingdom,’ &c.; the simple form is perhaps found only in OIc. poetry as konr (i-stem), ‘man of noble birth, relative of the king.’ In tracing the evolution in meaning, this fact can no more be rejected than the former; in this case too König would contain the essential idea of distinguished birth, but perhaps more accurately ‘the son of a man of distinguished birth’; comp. Fr. and E. prince, signifying both Prinz (male member of the royal family) and Fürst (a sovereign ruler, and also a title next above Count). The etymological connection between E. king and queen must be discarded, since the latter signified ‘woman’ generally; yet it is of some value in illustrating the development of meaning in the word König; AS. cwên is espec. ‘the noble lady.’

können, pret. pres., ‘to be able,’ from MidHG. kunnen, OHG. chunnan, pret. pres. (sing. kan, plur. kunnum, pret. konsta), prop. ‘to be capable intellectually, know, be acquainted with, understand,’ then also ‘to be able, be in a position (to).’ AS. cunnan (sing. can), pret. pres., ‘to be acquainted with, know, be able,’ E. can; Goth. kunnan (sing. kann, plur. kunnum), pret. pres., ‘to be acquainted with, know.’ In the earlier periods the verbal stem können had exclusively an intellectual sense in contrast to that of mögen, vermögen. Besides the stem kann- preserved in the vb. kunnan (comp. also Goth. kunnan, ‘to recognise,’ AS. cunnian, ‘to explore, attempt,’ see also Kunst, kund, and kennen), there exists in the OTeut. languages a verbal stem which may be represented in Goth. as *knê, *knô; AS. cnâwan, ‘to recognise, know,’ E. to know; OHG. irchnâan, bichnâan, ‘to recognise’; OHG. úrchnât, f., ‘perception’ (Goth. *knêþs, f., is wanting); the OHG. nominal vb. irchnuodilen, ‘to become perceptible,’ points to a Goth. *knôþla-, ‘knowledge.’ The three Teut. stems kann, knê, knô occur in the non-Teut. languages, Gr. and Lat. gnô in γιγνώσκω (ἔ-γνω-ν), ‘to recognize,’ γνῶσις, ‘knowledge,’ Lat. gno-sco, nô-tus, nô-tio; OSlov. znają, znati, ‘to recognise’; OIr. gnáth, ‘acquainted.’ Ind. forms a pres. from a root *jan, the pret. from a root jnâ, jânãmi, jajnáu (comp. part. jnâtá), ‘to know’; the Teut. root kann from gen-n appears in Lith. żinaú, ‘to know, recognise, perceive,’ pa-żintis, ‘knowledge,’ Zend â-zaiñti, f., ‘information,’ OIr. ad-géin, perf.,

‘cognovit.’ This wide ramification of the closely allied Aryan root gen, gnô, ‘to recognise, know,’ is generally recognised, but its connection with the root gen, ‘to beget, bring forth,’ and the variants gnâ-, gnô-, discussed under Kind, König, and kennen, is problematical. Both seem to be united in AS. cennan, ‘to bring forth,’ and ‘to generate,’ Gr. γνωτός, ‘related by blood,’ and ‘discernible, known.’ The distinction, however, between the physical and intellectual senses of the word must have been made previous to the division of languages, since it exists in all the Aryan groups. Comp. kühn.

Kopf, m., ‘head,’ from MidHG. kopf, m., ‘drinking vessel, cup, pint measure, skull, head’; OHG. choph, chuph, m., ‘goblet’; AS. cuppa, E. cup; Scand. koppr, m., ‘crockery in the form of cups.’ This class is one of the most difficult to explain. Haupt, E. head, is certainly the real Teut. and earlier term for Kopf, and only in ModHG. has the latter finally supplanted the former. The numerous senses of the cognates further involves us in doubt, although analogies may be adduced in favour of the evolution of the notion ‘head’ from an earlier meaning ‘cup’; comp. OIc. kolla, f., ‘pot,’ kollr, m., ‘head’; ModHG. Hirnschale; Ital. coppa, ‘cup,’ and Prov. cobs, ‘skull’; Fr. tête, from Lat. testa; Goth. hwaírni, ‘skull,’ allied to AS. hwër, ‘kettle,’ Du. hersen-pan, ‘skull,’ MidE. herne-, brainpanne, ‘skull,’ allied to Pfanne, ‘pan’; Du. hersen-becken, ‘skull,’ allied to Becken, ‘basin.’ Thus in fact he ordinary assumption might be allowed to stand, according to which the entire class is based on MidLat. cuppa (Ital. coppa), ‘cup,’ Lat. cûpa, ‘cask.’ There are, however, cognate terms in Teut. which induce us to proceed, not from Lat. cûpa, ‘cask,’ but from a prim. Teut. word meaning ‘point, summit,’ AS. and MidE. copp, ‘summit, point,’ MidE. also ‘head,’ E. cop (for the evolution in meaning comp. Giebel, allied to Gr. κεφαλή, dial. Dach, ‘roof,’ for Kopf); OSax. coppod, ‘cristatus’ of serpents, is also worthy of note. The Teut. origin of the word Kopf in its ModHG. sense is also supported by the fact that OHG. chuppha, MidHG. kupfe, f., ‘head-dress,’ evidently connected with Kopf, is necessary to explain some Rom. cognates — Ital. cuffia, Fr. coiffe, and MidLat. cofea, are derived from OHG. chuppha. Besides, Lat. cûpa, cuppa, as a fem. is not well adapted in form to explain the Teut. masc., especially since