Komôf en betsjutting fan Nijfrysk wan

Abstract

This article presents a study of the West Frisian word wan, as it is used in the idiomatic expression immen in wan bruien jaan, ‘to give someone a beating’. In section 1 the word is distinguished from two other, homophonous, instances of wan, meaning ‘wall’ and ‘rigging (on a ship)’, respectively. Ultimately it turns out, however, that these homophones do have a common etymon. In 1915, in a popular Frisian weekly, the word already caught the attention. Several, by now curious, attempts were made then to provide an etymology, as is demonstrated in section 2. In section 3 we present our own etymology, suggesting that the word should be related to an Ablaut form of a common Germanic verb, which nowadays shows up in German and Dutch wenden, ‘to turn’. This also accounts for the semantics of the idiomatic expression, which has been derived from a meaning of wan that refers to a turn in traditional threshing. Frisian dictionaries have not been very exact and consistent in their interpretation and description of the meaning of wan, as is shown in section 4.