| Bedürfnis, Notdurft, bieder, &c., the primary sense of the root þrf, from tṛp, ‘to be destitute of, lack,’ still appears.
dürr, adj., ‘dry, meagre, barren,’ from MidHG. dürre, OHG. durri, ‘withered, dry, lean’; corresponds to Du. dor, OLG. thurri, AS. þyrre, Goth. þaúrsus, ‘dry’ (with regard to HG. rr, from Goth. rs, comp. irre, Farre). From a pre-Teut. adj. þurzu-, ‘dry, withered,’ which belongs to a root þurs, from pre-Teut. tṛs. As a result of the restriction of the word — probably in primit. times — to denote the dryness of the throat, we have the OInd. tṛšús, ‘greedy, panting,’ and ModHG. dürsten; as applied to the voice, or rather speech, tṛs appears in Gr. τραυλός, ‘lisping,’ for *τρασυλός (comp. δαυλός, ‘dense,’ for *δασυλός, Lat. densus), and OInd. tṛšṭá-s, ‘hoarse, rough (of the voice).’ With the general meaning ‘dry,’ ModHG. Darre, dörren, and their cognates are connected. Durst, m., ‘thirst,’ from the equiv. MidHG. and OHG. durst, m.; comp. MidLG. and Du. dorst, AS. þyrst, E. thirst; Goth. þaurstei, f., ‘thirst.’ The final t of the OHG. and Eng. words is a deriv., as may be inferred from Goth. þaúrseiþ mik, ‘I am thirsty.’ The further comparisons made under Darre, dörren, dürr, amply prove that the short form þors, from pre-Teut. tṛš, signifies ‘to be thirsty’; comp. especially OInd. tṛšṇaj, ‘thirsty,’ tṛšnâ, f., ‘thirst,’ tṛš, str. vb. (3rd pers. sing. tṛšyati, Goth þaurseiþ), ‘to pant, be thirsty'; tṛšú-s, ‘panting.’ Dusel, m., ‘dizziness,’ simply ModHG., from LG. dusel, ‘giddiness’; a genuine HG. word would have had an initial t, as OHG. tusig, ‘foolish,’ shows; the latter corresponds to AS. dysig, ‘foolish,’ E. dizzy. To the root dus (dhus) contained in this |
class, belong Thor, thöricht, with the genuine HG. t initially. A different gradation of the same root dus, from Aryan dhus, appears in AS. dwœ̂s, Du. dwaas, ‘foolish.’
Dust, m., ‘dust, powder,’ simply ModHG., from LG. dust; corresponds to E. dust (but see further Dunst). The final t is probably a deriv.; dus, the root, may be the weakest form of an Aryan dhwes; OInd. dhvas, dhvaṅs, seems to have been always nasalised; it signifies ‘fly about like dust, scatter dust when running swiftly,’ which is in harmony with the meaning of Dust, ‘dust.’ düster, adj. (unknown to UpG.?), ‘gloomy, dismal, sad,’ from the equiv. LG. düster, dûster; comp. OSax. thiustri, AS. þeóstre, þŷstre, ‘dark,’ MidHG. dinster, OHG. dinstar, OHG. finstar, OSax. finistar are remarkable parallel forms expressing the same idea; so too AS. þeóstru, ‘darkness.’ The primary form may be seen in the stem of dämmern, Goth. *þimis, ‘twilight,’ OInd. támas, ‘darkness’; Lat. tenebrae (for *temebrae) comes nearest perhaps to MidHG. dinster. f is interchanged with þ in Fackel, AS. þœcele; in the same way finster might be related to dinstar (from þinstar). These guesses are, however, too uncertain. Düfte, Deute, Tüte, f., ‘paper bag, screw’; merely ModHG. from LG. tüte (akin to Du. tuit, ‘pipe’?); respecting the LG. and Du. ü sound, see under Büse. In Swab. and Bav. the terms are gugge, gucken. Dutzend, n., ‘dozen,’ from the equiv. late MidHG. totzen, with an excrescent final d (see Jemand, Mond); from Fr. douzaine (comp. Ital. dozzina), whence also E. dozen, Du. dozijn; ultimately derived from Lat. duodecim. |
E.
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Ebbe, f., ‘ebb,’ merely ModHG., borrowed, like many terms relating to the sea, from LG.; comp. Du. ebb, ebbe, f., Dan. ebbe, Swed. ebb, m. The word is first found in AS., where ebba, m., is the form (comp. E. ebb, whence also Fr. ébe), nautical terms being generally recorded at an earlier period in that language than elsewhere; comp. Boot, Leck, Schote (2.), Steven, and Bord. Had the OTeut. word been preserved in Ger. we should have expected OHG. eppo, |
ModHG. Eppe. It is possible that the word is connected with the cognates of eben (Ebbe, lit. ‘leveller,’? ‘plain’?). Yet Ebbe, from its meaning, is more appropriately connected with Goth. ibuks, ‘backwards, back’ (OHG. ippihhôn, ‘to roll back’); hence Ebbe is lit. ‘retreat’; the connection with eben (Goth. ibns) is not thereby excluded. Scand. has a peculiar word for Ebbe — fjara, ‘ebb,’ fyrva, ‘to ebb.’ No Goth. word is recorded. |
