Re: About the word "spinster"

On Fri, 17 Nov 2006, Joachim Pense wrote:

On Wed, 15 Nov 2006, Joachim Pense wrote:

The meaning 'empty' of "ledig" is not in use anymore.

Rather, it is used mainly in idioms

That's what I normally call "is not in use anymore". Agreed, that's sloppy
usage.

Agreed.

But I had a second point, although I failed to make it explicit enough: all
dictionary references of "ledig" which I found, and also all meanings I am
aware of, have a meaning of "free, not subject to an obligation". The
meaning "unmarried" squares perfectly with this meaning. "empty" is not the
same thing, and has been corroborated with only one example quoted by Prai
Jei. In the same contribution, Prai Jei wrote on "ledig":

Which in Dutch means empty, contracted leeg. Which in German is leer.
Which in Dutch is a contraction for ladder or leder (leather). Talking of
false friends:-)

Now the second line is a deliberate false friend, but that does not prevent
the first line frome being another one, perhaps a well-disguised deliberate
one. To sum up:

[de] ledig =1= [nl] leeg =2= [de] leer

I would guess that =1= are cognates but =2= are not.


--
Helmut Richter
.