Page:An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language.djvu/85

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down'; comp. Lith. tupeti, ‘to squat,’ tupti, ‘to squat down.’

ducken, vb., ‘to bow, duck, stoop, dive,’ with LG. initial d, from MidHG. tucken, tücken, ‘to incline the body quickly, bend, bow'; prob. a frequentative of MidHG. tûchen, ‘to dive,’ which see.

Duckmäuser, ‘sly, stealthy person,’ appears in MidHG. as tockelmûser, ‘sneak, hypocrite’; the ModHG. form is based anew on ducken, MidHG. tucken. A parallel form Tückmäuser is based on Tücke, ‘malice,’ the second part of the compound being connected with MidHG. mûsen, prop. ‘to catch mice,’ then (with thievish intent), ‘to sneak.’

dudeln, vb., simply ModHG. formed from the equiv. Pol. dudlić, ‘to play the bagpipes,’ from dudy, ‘bagpipe.’

Duft (1.), f., see Ducht.

Duft (2.), m., ‘exhalation, odour,’ with LG. initial d, from MidHG. tuft, m., ‘vapour, fog, dew, rime,’ OHG. tuft, ‘frost’; of obscure origin.

dulden, vb. (unknown to the Suab., and perhaps also to the other UpG. dialects), ‘to bear, tolerate, suffer,’ from the equiv. MidHG. and OHG. dulten; a denominative of OHG. dult, MidHG. dult, f., ModHG. Geduld. The Goth used þulan for dulden without the dental deriv. (OHG. dolên, MidHG. doln, both far more general in meaning than the ModHG. dulden, ‘to suffer’; AS. þolian, ‘to suffer’). The pre-Teut. root is tel, tol, tlê, which appears, exactly corresponding to the meaning of the Teut. cognates, in Gr. τλή-μων ‘to suffer,’ τλή-μων, ‘miserable,’ πολύτλας, ‘much enduring,’ &c. Lat. tolerâre and ertragen (Lat. perferre), show that Lat. tollo (partic. latus tor *tlâ-tus; pret. tuli, from offero), and Gr. τολμᾶν, ‘to venture, endure,’ may be cognates. Hence the primary sense of the root appearing in the graded forms tel, tol, tlê, tlâ, is ‘to bear, tolerate.’ See Geduld.

Dult, f., Bav. ‘fair,’ with MidG. initial d, from MidHG. tult, f., ‘fair, church festival, dedication festival,’ OHG. tuld. The word is the OTeut. term for ‘festival’; Goth. dulþs, f., ‘festival, holiday.’

dumm, adj., ‘stupid, silly,’ from MidHG. tum (gen., -mmes), tump (gen. -bes), ‘stupid, foolish, weak in understanding, dumb,’ OHG. tumb. In Goth. dumbs, OIc. dumbr the adj. is equiv. to AS. and E. dumb; the OHG. word, in addition to the mean-

ings of MidHG., has likewise the signification ‘deaf,’ which also belongs to dumm in early ModHG. ‘Dull in sense and intellect’ may be the primary sense of the adj., which has not yet been found in the non-Teut. languages; stumm too has a peculiar history; see schmecken, hell. Words expressing the perceptions of one sense are often transferred to those of another. Hence Goth. dumbs, ‘dumb,’ OHG. tumb, ‘deaf, dumb,’ may possibly be allied to Gr. τυφλός, ‘blind’ (root dhubh; τυφ by the well-known rule for θυφ). This conjectural etymology is quite as uncertain as that offered under Dieb.

dumpf, adj., ‘damp, dull, heavy,’ ModHG. only; formed by the weakest stage of gradation from MidHG. dimpfen, str. vb., ‘to fume, smoke’; comp. also MidHG. dumpfen, dümpfen, ‘to fume, damp.’ The orig. sense of the adj. is probably ‘smoky,’ i.e. ‘damp,’ or ‘dimming the sight and dulling the hearing’; dumpf appears in Du. dompig, with the meaning ‘damp, gloomy.’ Perhaps the word is connected with dunkel; comp. E. dank.

Düne, f., ‘down, dune,’ simply ModHG. from the equiv. LG. düne (OSax. *dûna), Du. duin (whence Fr. dune); respecting ModHG. ü from Du. ui, comp. Büse, Süden. Akin to AS. dûn, ‘hill,’ E. down (‘plateau’), So too E. down, adv.; for AS. adûne, ofdûne, ‘from the mountain, towards the valley,’ corresponds exactly to MidHG. ze tal (comp. Fr. à mont, ‘up the stream’). Likewise Gr. θύραζε, ‘before the door,’ has the general meaning ‘outside’; MidHG. ze bërge is ‘aloft, upwards’; comp. ModHG. die, Haare stehen einem zu Berge, ‘one's hair stands on end.’ The düne group (E. down) seems to have spread from Eng. into Du. and LG. (comp. besides Bake, Boot, Prahm). Hence the assumption that AS. dûn is of Kelt. origin is not to be discarded — OIr. dûn, ‘hill’ (comp. the OKelt. names of towns ending in dûnum, Augustodiunum, Lugdunum); though the attempt to show that it is primit. allied to Gr. θῖν (nom. θίς), ‘sea-beach,’ and Sans. dhánu-s, ‘dry land, continent, inhospitable land,’ cannot be recommended; AS. dûn would be pre-Teut. dhûnâ (the indubitable form of the cognate word in Ind.).

Dung, m., with LG. initial d; ‘dung, manure,’ from MidHG. tunge, f., ‘dung, manuring’; MidHG. tunc, m., f., signifies