[Sca-cooks] Service and Kraut questions from Gwen Cat
JIMCHEVAL at aol.com
JIMCHEVAL at aol.com
Sat Feb 9 10:31:32 PST 2013
Ah. Good to know. Still, in our period, it was plainly 'cum', no? Not that
spellings were that precise by then (see next).
A fly in the ointment here is the antiquity of the term and its use
("conpanio") in a late version of the Salic law (see LXIII, last column here, at
the bottom):
_http://books.google.com/books?id=6vY76tDSoNEC&pg=PA42&dq=LXIII.+De+Hominem+
In&hl=en&sa=X&ei=s5MWUbznLa_xigKAmIGwAw&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false_
(http://books.google.com/books?id=6vY76tDSoNEC&pg=PA42&dq=LXIII.+De+Hominem+In&hl=en&sa=X&ei=s5MWUbznLa_xigKAmIGwAw&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false
)
This seems to blow out of the water the frequently repeated assertion that
the word has its origin in the late medieval practice of sharing a bowl (an
assertion which of course I just repeated myself recently; blush).
Apparently not, since the Franks were already talking about sharing bread early on
and there is no evidence at all for sharing a bowl this far back.
Interestingly, by the way, elsewhere in Salic law, witnesses to a contract
are to swear they have eaten the signer's gruel (pultis), showing that this
was still as common as bread as a shared food. (I take the phrase here to
be as metaphorical as "eating another man's bread"; that is, eating
anything at another's table.)
Otherwise, for the true word nerds, this article has an erudite look at
the German side of this (page 7):
_http://www.lacus.org/volumes/30/101_dellaVolpeAngela.pdf_
(http://www.lacus.org/volumes/30/101_dellaVolpeAngela.pdf)
Jim Chevallier
www.chezjim.com
Newly translated from Pierre Jean-Baptiste Le Grand d'Aussy:
Eggs, Cheese and Butter in Old Regime France
In a message dated 2/9/2013 10:06:53 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,
t.d.decker at att.net writes:
In Latin etymology, "com-" is the older form, believed to be derived from
the Proto-Indo European "kom-." "Cum-" is associated with Classic Latin
(1st Century BCE - 3rd Century CE), but the older form was acceptable and
understood.
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