Page:An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language.djvu/247

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(Goth. mél, see the preceding word). Even in OHG. the expressions z' einemo mâle, ‘once,’ ze drin mâlen, ‘thrice,’ manigen mâlen, ‘many a time,’ were formed; hence lit. ‘at one period, at two, at many periods’; so too z' andermo mâle, ‘at another time’; hence MidHG. eines mâles, ‘once,’ lit. ‘at one period.’ For the OHG. and MidHG. dat. plurs. mâlum, mâlen (ze drin mâlen, ‘thrice’), the apocopated form mal first appears in early ModHG.

maledeien, vermaledeien, vb., from the equiv. MidHG. vermaledîen, later also maledîen, ‘to curse’; from Lat. maledicere, whence also Fr. maudire, Ital. maledire.

malen, vb., ‘to paint,’ from MidHG. mâlen, lit. ‘to furnish with a mark or sign,’ then ‘to colour, paint, write,’ OHG. mâlôn, mâlên, ‘to paint, draw’; allied to OHG. mât; ‘point,’ signifying also ‘period’ according to mal (2), mentioned under Mal (1). Akin also to Goth. mêla, neu. plur., ‘writing, documents,’ mêljan, ‘to write, record.’

malmen, zermalmen, vb., ‘to crush to pieces, grind,’ ModHG. only, but apparently, on account of the infrequency of the m-suffix, far older. The non-occurrence of OHG. *mâlmôn and MidHG. *malmen is probably only an accident; in MidHG. zermaln and zermüln, ‘to grind,’ are used. The suffix m is seen in the nouns, Goth. malma, m., ‘sand,’ and OSax., OHG., and MidHG. mëlm,. m., ‘dust’; to these are allied Müll and Gemüll, MidHG. gemülle, OHG. gimulli, ‘dust, mould’ For the root mal see under mahlen.

Malter, m. and n., ‘measure’ (in Pruss. formerly about 18 bush.), from MidHG. malter, malder, n., ‘corn measure’; comp. OHG. maltar, OSax. maldar, n., ‘measure.’ Formed by means of the Teut. suffix -þra-, -dra- (Gr. τρο-, Lat. tro-, comp. Alter), from the root mal; see mahlen, Malter means lit. ‘grinding,’ then ‘the quantity given to be ground at one time.’

Malve, f., ‘mallow,’ ModHG. only, from Lat. (Ital.) malva; if it were borrowed at an early period, lv in Lat. ought to have changed into lb in ModHG. In England the Lat. term was adopted in very early times; hence AS. mealwe, E. mallow (Du. maluwe). Comp. also Fr. mauve.

Malz, n., ‘malt,’ from the equiv. MidHG. and OHG. malz, n.; comp. OSax. and OIc. malt, n., AS. mealt, E. malt (Goth. *malt, n.); a common Teut. word for

‘malt,’ which passed into Slav. and Finn. (comp. OSlov. mlato, Finn. mallas), and also into Fr. as malt. Teut. *maltas belongs to a Teut. root melt, in AS. mëltan, ‘to dissolve, liquefy, melt,’ to which is allied an OIc. adj. maltr, ‘rotten,’ similar to OHG. and MidHG. malz, ‘melting away, soft, relaxed.’ Perhaps the subst. Malz (Goth. *malt, n.) is only the neu. of this adj., meaning ‘that which is soft.’ See further schmelzen.

mampfen, vb., ‘to stutter,’ ModHG. only, of obscure origin.

man, pron., ‘one, they, people,’ from MidHG. and OHG. man; corresponding to OSax. and AS. man, Du. men; prop. nom. sing. of the ModHG. subst. Mann, ‘homo’; so too Lat. homo appears as a pron. in Fr. on (as well as homme). In the early periods (MidHG., OHG., and AS.) man was again represented by the 3rd pers. pron. sing. (MidHG. and OHG. ër, AS. hê); hence man is lit. ‘any man’; in Goth. manna is found only with a negation (ni manna, ‘nobody’); see jemand. The sing. may have here a collective meaning, just as Sans. mánus (comp. Mann), and pûrús in the sing. signify ‘person, people, mankind.’

manch, adj., ‘many a,’ from MidHG. manec (g), OHG. manag, adj., ‘much, many a.’ The g has been preserved in ModHG. mannig-falt;. the change of g to ch in this word, which is first found in ModHG., is due to LG. influence. ModHG. manec, OHG. manag, ‘much’; akin to Goth. manags, ‘much,’ so too AS. monig, E. many, OSax. maneg, Du. menig. From the Teut. standpoint, the adj. may be derived from Goth. and OHG. mana-, ‘man, person,’ which orig. always occurred in compounds; comp. Goth. ga-man, n., ‘fellow-man,’ mana-sêþs, ‘mankind,’ OHG. manaheit, ‘valour,’ manalîhho, ‘likeness,’ &c. In that case, since the suffix ga-, equiv. to Gr. κο-, Lat. o, denotes ‘providing with something,’ the prim. meaning of Goth. manags may have been ‘to provide with people.’ Yet OIr. menice, ‘frequent,’ and OSlov. mănogŭ, ‘much,’ point to a prim. word probably unconnected with Goth. and OHG. mana-, ‘person.’

Mandel (1.), ‘fifteen,’ ModHG. only; the other meaning, which appears in earlier ModHG., ‘shock of corn (of 15 sheaves),’ may be the older. The G. word cannot be etymologically explained. (MidLat. man-