Page:An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language.djvu/93

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have probably no connection with a Teut. root erk, ‘to vomit, nauseare,’ to which old UpG. erkele, ‘to loathe,’ E. irksome, to irk, are allied. —

Ekelname, ‘nickname,’ simply ModHG., in MidHG. â-name, prop. ‘false name’; from LG. œkelname; comp. Swed. öknamn, ‘nickname,’ OIc. aukanafn, ‘epithet, surname’; from the Teut. root auk, ‘to increase.’ See auch.

Elch, Elen, see Elentier.

Elefant, see Elfenbein.

elend, adj., ‘wretched, pitiful, miserable, despicable,’ from MidHG. ęllende, adj., ‘unhappy, woful, living in a foreign country, banished,’ OHG. ęli-lenti, ‘banished, living out of one's country, foreign, alien, captive’; corresponding to OSax. ęli-lendi, ‘alien, foreign.’ To this is allied the abstract Elend, n., from MidHG. ęllende, OHG. ęli-lenti, n., ‘banishment, foreign country,’ MidHG. also, ‘want, distress, misery,’ OHG. also, ‘captivity,’ OSax. ęlilendi, n., ‘foreign country.’ The primary meaning of the adj. is ‘living in, born in a foreign country’ (comp. Elsaß, from early MidLat. Alisatia, from OHG. Elisâȥȥo, lit. ‘incola peregrinus,’ or ‘inhabitant of the other bank of the Rhine’). Goth. aljis, ‘another,’ is primit. cognate with Lat alius, Gr. ἄλλος (for ἄλjος), OIr. aile, ‘another’; comp. the corresponding gen. OHG. and AS. ęlles, ‘otherwise,’ E. else. The pronominal stem alja- was even in the Goth. period supplanted by anþara-, ‘another.’ Comp. Recke.

Elentier, n., also Elen, Elend, m. and n., ‘elk,’ first occurs in ModHG. with an excrescent d (as in Mond); borrowed from Lith. élnis, ‘elk’ (OSlov. jelenĭ, ‘stag’), with which OSlov. lani, ‘hind’ (from *olnia), is primit. allied. From the ModHG. word Fr. élan, ‘elk,’ is derived. The genuine OG. term for Elen is Elch (E. elk); comp. MidHG. ëlch, ëlhe, m., OHG. ëlaho, AS. eolh, OIc. elgr. The last word (originating in algi-) is termed alces in Cæsar's Bell. Gall., with which Russ. losĭ (from OSlav. *olsĭ?) is also remotely connected. Perhaps OG. Elch facilitated the introduction of the Lith. word.

Elf, m., simply ModHG. borrowed in the last century from the equiv. E. elf (comp. Halle, Heim); also ModHG. Elfe, f.; for further references see Alp. The MidHG. ęlbe, ęlbinne, f., shows that a corresponding ModHG. would have b in place of f.

elf, eilf, num., ‘eleven,’ from the equiv. MidHG. eilf, eilif, einlif, OHG. einlif; a term common to Teut. for ‘eleven.’ Comp. OSax. êlleƀan (for ênliƀan), AS. ândleofan, endleofan (for ânleofan), E. eleven, OIc. eilifu, Goth. aintif. A compound of Goth. ains, HG. ein, and the component -lif in Zwölf (Goth. twalif). In the non-Teut. languages only Lith. has a corresponding formation; comp. Lith. vënólika, ‘eleven,’ twýlika, ‘twelve,’ trŷlika, keturiólika (and so on up to nineteen); the f of the Ger. word is a permutation of k, as in Wolf (λύκος). The signification of the second component, which is met with in Teut. only in the numbers elf and zwölf, is altogether uncertain. Some have derived the compound, upon which the Lith. and Teut. words are based, from the Aryan root lik, ‘to remain over’ (see leihen), or from the Aryan root lip (see bleiben), and regarded elf as ‘one over.’

Elfenbein, n., from the equiv. MidHG. hëlfenbein, OHG. hëlfanbein, n., ‘ivory,’ but based anew on Elefant. How the word came b the initial h (AS. ylpendbân), which is also ound in MidHG. and OHG. hëlfant (also less frequently ëlfant, equiv. to AS. ylpend) ‘elephant,’ is not known. It is possible that the excrescent h at the beginning is due to the word being connected with helfen (in the Middle Ages special healing qualities were ascribed to ivory). Perhaps the word was obtained not from Romance, but from the East, from Byzantium (Gr. ἐλέφαντ-); for the word would probably correspond to Lat. (ebur) eboreus had it been introduced into Ger. through a Romance medium. Comp. Ital. avorio, Fr. ivoire, ‘ivory,’ Du. voor, E. ivory (yet also Span. marfil, Port. marfim). — With regard to the meaning of the second part of the compound (Bein, lit. ‘bone’), see Bein.

Elle, f., from the equiv. MidHG. ęlle, ęle, ęln, ęlne, OHG. ęlina (and ęlin), f. ‘ell’; corresponding to Goth. aleina (wrongly written for *alina?), OIc. ǫln, AS. ęln, f., E. ell, Du. el, elle; all these words signify ‘ell,’ which is derived from the lit. meaning ‘fore-arm’ (comp. Fuß, Spanne, Klafter, as standards of measure). The word in the form ō̆lē̆nâ is also preserved in other Aryan languages. Comp. Gr. ‘ὠλένη, ‘elbow, arm,’ Lat. ulna, ‘elbow, arm, ell,’ OIr. uile, Sans. aratní, OSlov. lakŭtĭ (from *olkŭtĭ), Lith. ólektis (ŭlektis), ‘elbow, ell,’ are more remote; they also contain, however, the