Page:An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language.djvu/109

Fie  ,, from the  videl, videle, ,  fidula (as early as Otfried), , ‘fiddle, violin’;   vedel,  fiþele,  fiddle,  fiþla. fidula is based, according to fiþele, ‘fiddle,’ fiþelêre, ‘fiddler,’ fiþelestre, ‘fidicina,’ upon an older West  *fiþula. The latter form with þ might be deduced from *fitula or fidula (for fidicula?), yet these primary forms are not recorded. There is undeniable connection between the class and the Romance cognates —  viola,  viole, ‘violin,’ the origin of which, it is true, is much disputed. Still found its way from  into Romance.  ,, ‘to flay,’ from the  villen,  fillen; allied to.  ,, ‘felt, blanket; miser; reprimand,’ from the  vilz,  filz, ;   vilt,  and  felt,  and  filt, ‘felt’ ( *filtis, pre- *peldos, ). pilus, pileus, πῖλος, are scarcely allied; it is more probably connected with  plŭstĭ, ‘felt.’ From the  word are derived the similarly sounding Romance words,  feltro,  feutre,  filtrum, ‘felt.’ Other words also relating to weaving were introduced into Romance from. See,.  ,, ‘to find, discover; deem, consider,’ from the  vinden,  findan;   finþan,  finna,  findan,  to find,  fîthan, findan, ‘to find.’  fenþ, as a  verbal root from pre- root pent; akin to  fęndo, , ‘pedestrian,’  fêþa, ‘foot-soldier,’  funden, ‘to hasten’?. Some etymologists adduce invenire and  na iti, ‘to find,’ to show by analogy that from a verb of ‘going’ the meaning ‘find’ can be evolved. With the root fenþ the   root ét- (from pent-) is most closely connected.  ,, ‘finger,’ from the  vinger,  fingar, ; a common  term;   figgrs,  fingr,  and  finger. It is uncertain whether the word is derived from, root fanh, and it is questionable whether it comes from the root finh, pre- pink, ‘to prick, paint,’ fingo (see ); it is most probably  allied to  (Aryan penqe). The terms, , are specifically , and cannot be etymologically explained with certainty. Besides there existed even in a definite  term for each finger. First of all the thumb obtained its name, which is a rudimentary and hence very old form; for the remaining names see under.   ,, ‘finch,’ from the  vinke,  fincho, ; corresponds to  vink,  finc,  finch,  fink,  finke, ‘finch’;  *finki-, *finkjan-, are wanting. There is a striking similarity of sound in the words for ‘finch’ —  pincione,  pinson, to which the  dialectal forms pink, pinch, ‘finch,’ belong. Yet there is no suspicion that the word was borrowed; the  class is probably  allied to the  word.    (1.),, ‘fin,’ first occurs in from  finne,  vin, ‘fin’; first recorded in the  group in  (finn, ,  fin), hence it cannot have been borrowed from  pinna, ‘fin of the dolphin, feather.’ No  word can be proved to have been borrowed from  before the period of the  substitution of consonants, i.e., before the beginning of our era (see ). Hence finn must be assumed as  cognate with  pinna. Is it, like penna, based upon pesna ? If it were based upon *pis-nâ, ‘fin,’ it might perhaps be regarded as cognate with piscis, fiska- (fis-ka), ‘fish.’

 (2.),, ‘tumour, scrofula,’ from vinne, pfinne, ‘pimple, foul rancid smell’;   vin, ‘pimple.’ The relation of the initial sounds is not clear;  pfinne points to  p,  vin to f initially; perhaps the double form is due to confusion with  (1.); p may be the correct initial sound.  ,, ‘dark, gloomy, morose, sullen,’ from the  vinster,  finstar;  *finistar, as an , is not found, but it may be inferred from a  with the same sound, meaning ‘darkness’; the stem is essentially , but a series of phonetic difficulties (see ) hamper the discovery of the type. In there exists besides  an  dinstar,  dinster, whose initial d must have been substituted for an earlier  þ; to these  thimm, ‘dark,’ corresponds. The interchange of þ and f, judging from the parallel forms under and, cannot be denied. In that case the root would be þem (see ). But thiustri,  þŷstre ‘gloomy,’ have no connection with it.