A COMPREHENSIVE ETYMOLOGICAL DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE This page intentionally left blank A COMPREHENSIVE ETYMOLOGICAL DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE Dealing with the origin of words and their sense development thus illustrating the history of civilization and culture BY DR. ERNEST KLEIN A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver PROVERBS 25:11 UNABRIDGED, ONE-VOLUME EDITION ELSEVIER AMSTERDAM - BOSTON - LONDON - NEW YORK - OXFORD - PARIS SAN DIEGO - SAN FRANCISCO - SINGAPORE - SYDNEY - TOKYO ELSEVIER SCIENCE B.V. Sara Burgerhartstraat 25 P.O. Box 211, 1000 AE Amsterdam, The Netherlands © 1971 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. This dictionary is protected under copyright by Elsevier Science, and the following terms and conditions apply to its use: Photocopying Single photocopies may be made for personal use as allowed by national copyright laws. 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First edition in two volumes 1966 and 1967 Second impression 1969 Third inpression (in one volume) 1971 Fourth inpression (in one volume) 1977 Fifth inpression (in one volume) 1979 Sixth inpression (in one volume) 1986 Seventh inpression (in one volume) 2000 Eight inpression (in one volume) 2003 Library of Congress Card number 73-172090 ISBN: 0-444-40930-0 The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper). Printed in The Netherlands. I am what my MOTHER and my FATHER made of me THE AUTHOR DEDICATED TO THE SAC RED MEMORY OF THE BEST PARENTS: MY DEAR MOTHER WHO AFTER A LIFE OF SELF-SACRIFICE DIED IN SZATMAR IN 1940 AND MY DEAR FATHER, THE WORLD-REN OWN ED RABBI AND SCHOLAR RABBI 1GNAZ (ISAAC) KLEIN OF SZATMAR, WHO DIED A MARTYR OF HIS FAITH IN AUSCHWITZ IN 1944; ANDTOTHESACREDMEMORYOFMY WIFE AND OF MY ONLY CHILD JOSEPH (HA YYIM ISRAEL) WHO ALSO FELL VICTIMS TO NAZISM IN AUSCHWITZ IN 1944 This page intentionally left blank Preface This dictionary is a modest tribute of my devotion to Canada, whose citizen I am proud to be, the country in which the spirit of the Bible has dominion from Sea to Sea, the country in which the Human Rights are a happy, living reality, a reality called upon to serve as a shining example to mankind. I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to the Canada Council, whose grant made it possible for me to have the manuscript of my dictionary typed in order to prepare it for the press. The generosity of this noble institution will continue to serve for me as a precious stimulus for further scientific work. Between 1931 and 1944, I was Rabbi of the Jewish Congregation in Nove' Zamky (Czechoslovakia), whence I was deported by the Nazis to Auschwitz and, from there, to the concentration camp Allach-Dachau. After the liberation from the latter place by American troops in 1945, 1 returned home to find only the ruins of what had once been the flourishing Jewish community of Nove Zamky. There I learned that my Father, my wife, my only child Joseph and two of my three sisters had suffered martyrdom in Auschwitz. Of my family, my sister Mrs. Paul Horvath (nee Elizabeth Klein) and her husband have survived. In 1945 1 became Chief Rabbi of the Jewish Congregation in Satu Mare, Rumania, but not wishing to remain in that country, 1 moved together with my sister and brother-in-law to Budapest,.and from there via Vienna to Paris, where I became Rabbi of the Congrega- tion Rue de Montevideo. In 1951 the three of us went to Toronto, Canada, where I began to deliver lectures. The students who attended these lectures showed their love to me by establishing a congregation and building a synagogue named Beth Yitshak in memory of my Father. I have been the rabbi of Congregation Beth Yitshak since 1952. When I came home from the concentration camp and learned about the whole extent of the holocaust, I was first near to despair. It was the boundless love and selfless dedication of my sister Elizabeth that gave me back my interest "in life, in pastoral activities and in science. She is like a guardian angel who watches over me. When I discovered several thousand mistakes in the standard etymological dictionaries, I decided to write my own etymological dictionary. I nevertheless hesitated before commencing the momentous task. Then my sister's enthusiasm and encouragement were my greatest inspi- ration. Without her-urging my etymological dictionary would never have been written. May this dictionary, which plastically shows the affinity and interrelationship of the nations of the world in the way in which their languages developed, contribute to bring- ing them nearer to one another in the sincere pursuit of peace on earth — which was one of my cardinal aims in writing this dictionary. Dr. Ernest Klein This page intentionally left blank Introduction Since my youth I have devoted myself to philology, with special regard to etymology. The reasons inducing me to write 'A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language' may be summed up as follows: It is a well-known fact that in the course of the last sixty years philology has attained a high degree of development. It is so much the more to be regretted that modern lexicography has remained far behind the achievements of philology. As a rule, even the most authoritative English etymological dictionaries give such etymologies as reflect the level reached by philology about half a century ago. In most cases etymologies given up by serious science long ago are still wandering out of one dictionary into another and continue living with tenacity, appa- rently ignoring the truths established in the field of philology in the course of the latter decades. One example may suffice to prove this. Despite the fact that Tocharian (this language extinct long ago but newly discovered at the end of the Nineteenth Century) occupies a very important place among the Indo-European languages, Tocharian references appear only quite excep- tionally in the etymological dictionaries of the English language. This is so much the more strik- ing, because Tocharian may help us understandthe development of many a word in the different Indo-European languages, inasmuch as the words of the Tocharian language often represent the transitory form — 'the missing link' — between the Old Indian and the other Indo-European languages. In this dictionary Tocharian words are regularly referred to together with the other Indo-European equivalents. English belonging to the great family of the Indo-European languages, it is quite evident that in tracing any word to its source, an etymological dictionary must take into consideration all the important cognates of this word in the other Indo-European languages. If we want to understand the history of an English word, we must compare this word with as many corre- spondences as possible. Most etymological dictionaries do not pay enough attention to this circumstance and there- fore cite equivalents from the kindred languages quite at random, often enumerating the less important ones but omitting such as had a decisive influence upon the form of the word treated or upon the development of its meaning. This dictionary tries to be a dependable guide to the reader in this respect too, by giving him all the necessary information about the origin, for- mation and sense development of any word that might interest him. The scientific value of most etymological dictionaries is much impaired by the circumstance that their authors are not familiar with the structure of the Semitic languages, a fact thrown into relief by the inconsistencies of the transliteration of Hebrew, Aramaic and Arabic words, on the one hand, and by the lack of any etymological analysis of these words, on the other. In tfois dictionary the words of Semitic origin — about 750 in number — are fully analyzed: they arS traced to their etyma, the cognates are given, the stem is distinguished from the prefixes and suffixes added to it, etc. In brief: the words of Semitic origin are treated exactly as the Indo- European words. This is why my dictionary may also serve as a preliminary work for an ety- mological dictionary of the Semitic languages themselves. In all etymological dictionaries we frequently come across such words as are declared to be 'of unknown origin', even in cases when the etymology of such words can be established beyond any doubt. In many other cases the etymology is not given either, but the origin of the respec-