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Sent: 21 June 2015 19:53
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Subject: [lit-ideas] Grice's Eighth Wonder
Grice agreed with the Ancients that the wonders were seven, "but I'll add an
eighth: implicatura" (i.e. the non-logical inference by means of which, say,
"Some students are brilliant" IMPLICATES, but never entails, that some ain't").
R. Paul was mentioning an eerie silence, now broken.
In a message dated 6/20/2015 10:13:29 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
jejunejesuit.geary2@xxxxxxxxx writes:
Aha! "eerie" comes from German "arg" meaning evil, bad. That explains
why sailors used to say "aarrrgggg" all the time. They were all Germans.
Always wondered about that.
Right. But note that 'arg' can mean 'malicious' in Swedish. So you NEVER know.
"Eery" was first used in English in 1302, to mean "timid, affected by
superstitious fear". It was a north England and Scottish variant of Old English
"earg", as used by King Alfred, to mean (about his enemies): "cowardly,
fearful, craven, vile, wretched, useless" (In his translation of "Consolation
of Philosophy", King Alfred uses it to refer to one of his servants).
Skeat hypothesises that Old English 'earg' is 'mimetic' "in origin" (he adds
redundantly). He implicates that people, or Old English people, when scared, do
uter, or did utter, "Earg!".
Skeat hypothesises also that Old English "earg" (that gives English "eerie",
since the final "-g" was dropped in Chaucer's time) is from a now, alas, lost
Proto-Germanic root *argaz.
"Not all is lost," Skeat adds, "as the many cognates that Old English "earg"
has is kinda eerie", he adds trying to be funny.
In Old Frisian, we have "erg", meaning "evil, bad". Middle Dutch has "arch",
meaning "bad" (as in "he is a bad student"), hence modern Dutch "arg"
(meaning the same).
Old High German had "arg", meaning "cowardly, worthless," and this gives the
word Geary is referring to, as heard from sailors: German "arg", in the sense
of "bad", but also "wicked" ("if such a difference can be made," Skeat adds --
cfr. Wizard of Oz, "Wicked Witch", but not "Bad Witch").
Old Norse (which was spoken by Old Norsemen) had "argr", used to mean "unmanly,
voluptuous" -- but only twice (and the context is not clear, since it's a
mythological saga).
From Old Norse comes modern Swedish "arg", which means "malicious" and is
sometimes confused with German "arg", which rather means 'cowardly and/or
worthless'.
The use of 'eery' to mean to "cause fear because of strangeness" is first
attested 1792 in Mrs. Willoughby's "Journal" ("He looked eery to me" -- the odd
thing is that 'he' was her husband, Mr. Willoughby -- but then this was a
"Dear Journal" entry, possibly otiose in tone).
The Finnish language has a word, "arka", which means "cowardly".
But the Finn language is not Indo-European and Skeat suggests that the Finns
borrowed 'arka' from the Germans (adding an euphonic final "-a" and turning the
German "g" into a "k" -- for some reason. As Skeat writes, "Etymology can be
fun", implicating sometimes it can't.
Cheers
Speranza
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