Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/276

 270 Klaeber gewdren und d'r mil maken wat he wil un kan. (J. ten Doorn- kaat Koolman's Dictionary.)] A specific development of this function is seen in : swie du sie niht gewerden last, Erlosung 4157, 'let her go,' i.e., 'dismiss her/ d) With a thing as the object. ich will mein weltliches leben gruntlich gewerden las sen, Augs- burger Ubersetzung von Gregors Dialogen (dated 1473); da liesz das gancz wasser seinen aigen graben gewerden und flos ihm nack, ib.* 8 From the foregoing illustrations it seems sufficiently clear that the modern German gewdhren lassen, 'let one do as one pleases,' 'let one have his own way,' 'let alone' is the lineal descendant of the old gewerden lazen (laten), and that no other etymology is needed to explain it. 49 Wunderlich in his elaborate discussion of gewdhren lassen (Grimm Worterbuch, I.e.} justly refers to the dialectal confusion of gewerden and gewer(e)n, 50 but he still seems inclined (col. 4851) to explain the phrase, with Osthoff, directly from (ge}wdhren 'dauern,' gewdhren lassen "ruhen lassen," "dauern und wahren lassen," cf. Lat. sinere. Though the latter influence might conceivably have contributed to the fixing of the form gewdhren? 1 the real etymology is not affected thereby. It should also be clearly understood that Wunderlich's three examples of an 'occasional' combination of 48 Cf. OE. Dial. Greg. 193.1: forlatenum hire agnum streame eall seo ea wees him fylgende, swa ]>(Bt heo eattunga >one gewunelican ryne anforlet. 49 Paul in the first edition of his Worterbmh considered the origin of the idiom still obscure; in the second edition (1908) he calls its development from gewerden lassen "phonetically quite possible. " The new Weigand (1909) offers no explanation. As regards van Helten's attempt (I.e.} to connect the (Middle Dutch) phrase with the OS. wardon, it is sufficient to point to the evidence of the OE. and ME. examples. 60 For the dropping (and analogical insertion) of d in Middle Low German see Liibben, Mittelniederdeutsche Grammatik, 33. For a convenient summary of the forms of the verb 'werden,' wern in modern Low German dialects see Grimme, Plattdeutsche Mundarten (Sammlung Goschen, no. 461), 195. A first-hand search, especially through Low German and Middle German texts, might perhaps result in establishing the lines of development more definitely. 51 The same might be conjectured with regard to gewahren 'grant,' and we might even ask the question whether the former similarity of construction (einen eines dinges wern (gewahren}} may not have aided in the process of fusion.