[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Schattschneider

Günther Böhm GHBoehm at ish.de
Fri Jun 2 03:53:17 PDT 2006


Heinz Rode schrieb:

>What's in a name?
>
>Excuse me if I differ re. the "Schachtschneider", the word is a combination of
>"Schacht" as in miningshaft, manhole; and " Schneider" a cutter, also a tailor.
>
>A spear maker would fashion a " Schaft"; I would rather call him or her :-)
>a " Schaftdreher".
>
>A " Schat(ten)schneider would be one who fashions a silhouette from black paper.
>
>Ah the nuances of a language, make a spelling mistake.............and what's in a 
>name?
>

Hello Heinz,
it is a bit more complicated since the German language developed and 
produced different spellings in different regions and periods. The 
original is old high German <scaft>, middle high German <schaft>, engl. 
<shaft>. It turned in middle lower German and middle Netherlands to 
<schacht> resp. <scacht>. Changes from <ft> to <cht> were quite common, 
see <fünfzig> to colloquil <fuffzig> to colloquil <fuchzig>; <Niftel> to 
<Nichte> or <sanft> to <sacht>.

Originally, the word derived from old high German verb <scaban>, middle 
and new high German <schaben>, engl. <shave> = scrape (wood scraping and 
shaving is much older than turning and the shaft of a lance or spear has 
been scraped and shaved but never turned since turning cuts through the 
wood grain and causes its breaking).

Guenther




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