Page:An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language.djvu/156

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Yet the fact remains that the old names of parts of the body have no corresponding str. verbal stems; comp. Herz, Ohr, Auge, Finger, Daumen. With regard to the form, it is to be observed that the word, according to Goth. handus, was orig. a u-stem, but is declined even in OHG. like nouns in i, though traces of the u declension remain throughout OHG. and MidHG.; comp. abhanden.

Hand, ‘kind, sort,’ is developed from the medial sense ‘side’; comp. MidHG. ze beiden handen, ‘on both sides,’ aller hande, ‘of every kind,’ vier hande, ‘of four sorts.’

handeln, vb., ‘to manage, act, deal, bargain,’ from MidHG. handeln, OHG. hantalôn, ‘to grasp with the hands, touch, feel, prepare, perform’ (hence O. Lorraine handeleir, ‘to sweep’); a derivative of Hand; Handel, m., has arisen from the vb. handeln merely, just as Ärger from ärgern (see arg), Geiz from geizen, Opfer from opfern — since it does not appear until late MidHG. (handel, m., ‘transaction, procedure, event, negotiation, wares’). AS. handlian, E. to handle, AS. handele, equiv. to E. handle; Scand. hǫndla, ‘to treat.’

Handwerk, n., ‘handicraft, trade, guild,’ from MidHG. hantwerc, n., ‘manual labour,’ but in the MidHG. period confused with antwerc, n., ‘tool, machine,’ whence the meaning ‘any vocation requiring the use of tools’ was developed.

Hanf, m., ‘hemp,’ from MidHG. hanf, hanef, m., OHG. hanaf, hanof, m.; a common Teut. word for ‘hemp’ (Goth. *hanaps is by chance not recorded); comp. AS. hœnep, E. hemp, OIc. hampr. The usual assumption that the word was borrowed from the South Europ. Gr. κάνναβις (Lat. cannabis) is untenable. The Teutons were not influenced by Southern civilisation until the last century or so before our era; no word borrowed from Gr.-Lat. has been fully subject to the OTeut. substitution of consonants (see Finne (1), Pfad, and the earliest loan-words under Kaiser). But the substitution of consonants in Goth. *hanaps compared with Gr. κἀνναβις proves that the word was naturalised among the Teutons even before 100 B.C. “The Greeks first became acquainted with hemp in the time of Herodotus; it was cultivated by the Scythians, and was probably obtained from Bactria and Sogdiana, the regions of the Caspian and the Aral, where it is said to grow luxuriantly even at the present time.”

Thus we can all the more readily reject the assumption of South Europ. influence; comp. Leinen. Why should not the Teutons in their migration from Asia to Europe have become acquainted with the culture of hemp when passing through the south of Russia, where the plant grows wild, and indeed among the very people who directly or indirectly supplied the Greeks with the word κἀνναβις? (comp. also Erbse). κἀνναβις itself is a borrowed term, and Goth. *hanaps corresponds in sound quite as well with OSlov. konoplja, Lith. kanápes, ‘hemp.’ The word is found even among the Persians (kanab). It does not seem to be genuinely Aryan.

Hang, m., ‘declivity, propensity, bias,’ from MidHG. hanc (-ges), m., ‘declivity, banging.’ See hangen.

hangen, vb., ‘to hang, be suspended,’ from MidHG. hâhen (hienc, gehangen), OHG. hâhan (hiang, gihangan), str. vb.; comp. fangen, from OHG. fâhan: before h an n is suppressed (comp. OHG. dâhta from denchan, dachte from denken; brachte, OHG. brâhta, from bringen). Corresponding to Du. hangen, AS. hôn (hêng, hangen), E. to hang, Goth. hâhan for *hanhan, str. vb., ‘to hang.’ In ModHG., E., and Du., the old str. vb. has been confused with the corresponding wk. vb., so that the trans. and intrans. meanings have been combined; comp. Du. hangen, E. to hang, ‘to suspend and to be suspended’; in MidHG. hâhen, is trans. and intrans., while hangen (OHG. hangên, AS. hangian) is intrans. only, ‘to be suspended’; to this is allied OHG. and MidHG. hęngen, ‘to hang down (one's head), give a horse its head, permit, grant,’ comp. henken. The ModHG. vb. is due to a blending in sound of MidHG. hâhen (hangen) and hęngen, yet in meaning it represents only MidHG. hâhen, OHG. hâhan. Terms undoubtedly allied to the common Teut. root hanh (hâh) are wanting in the other Aryan languages; Goth. hâhan, ‘to leave in doubt,’ has been compared with Lat. cunctari, ‘to delay.’

Hanse, f., ‘Hanse,’ from MidHG. hans, hanse, f., ‘mercantile association with certain defined powers as knights, merchant's guild’; orig. an UpG. word (prob. signifying any corporation, association? OHG. and Goth. hansa, f., AS. hôs, ‘troop’), yet it soon became current in all G. dialects, and has been preserved in its application to the towns of the great North G. Han-