Quote:
Originally Posted by Rick F.
dazed,
Glad you enjoyed the report!
Regarding "kill," I wasn't sure what it meant so I looked it up on the always-accurate Internet
 Apparently it comes from "Middle Dutch" (1150-1500), so I'm not surprised that it doesn't translate currently. Check out kill (body of water) on Wikipedia.
The modern Dutch word "beek" reminds me of a story. When my wife and I first went to England, we decided it would be fun to hike from the town of Haworth to the setting for Emily Brontė's Wuthering Heights. We had directions in a little pamphlet. After a couple of miles, however, the guidance was to "follow the beck." Well, we had no idea what a "beck" was!
We later learned that a beck is a stream. We had followed the stream, since there wasn't anywhere to cross, and it all worked out well. Thankfully, it was a beautiful day on Haworth Moor, and no sudden "wuthering" showed up.
Rick |
Cool, yes no doubt "beek" is indeed related to "beck". It's well possible that the medieval Dutch "kill" has completely vanished. Such old texts are nigh unreadable nowadays. Perhaps that with relatively few speakers more rapid changes do occur in a language!