duin

Forms

duin f (plural duinen, diminutive duintje n)^[1] The word is feminine, but as a collective, “the dunes”, it is neuter (het duin), and the neuter is also used for a single dune.^[2][3][4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle Dutch dûne, inherited from Old Dutch dūn, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *dūnā, a word of unclear origin.^[6][1][7] The same word is Middle Low German dūne and Old English dūn (“hill”), whence English down (“open hilly land”); it is found in only a small area.^[6][8][9]

The EWN, Van Veen and Van der Sijs think it most likely Celtic: it would then be from Proto-Celtic *dūnom (“hill, hill fort”), the word behind Old Irish dún (“hill, fort”), which survives in Gaelic place names as dún, and -dunum in Gaulish place names.^{[6][10][11][12][13]} Gysseling, cited by the ONW, likewise saw a possible substrate word beside Celtic ⟨dūnon⟩.^[7] The EWN adds that the Celtic word may be related to tuin, and that the Old English word was itself taken from Celtic.^[6] Kroonen explains ⟨tuin⟩, Proto-Germanic *tūna-, as a pre-Germanic loan from *dūno-, and allows ⟨duin⟩ to be a later adoption of the same Celtic word.^[14]

De Vries derives it from a native root instead, connecting it with Old Norse dýja (“to shake”), Lithuanian dujà (“dust particle”) and the root Proto-Indo-European *dʰeu- (“to blow, raise dust”), so that a dune would be sand blown up by the wind.^[8][6][9] Franck–Van Wijk took it as a participle of Proto-Germanic *ðū- (“to shake”), “shaken-up earth”, and denied any link with the Celtic word, as did Vercoullie, who thought of dons instead.^[3][15] Wiktionary gives both explanations, with a Proto-Germanic *dūnaz (“heap, pile”) for the native one.^[1] Because the origin is unclear and the word belongs to the landscape, the EWN thinks it more likely to come from a substrate language that left traces in Celtic and in part of Germanic.^[6]

Heeroma suggested that English settlers on the Flemish coast in the 11th century, when the dunes there were forming, gave them their English name, but the Old Dutch records of the 9th century rule this out.^[6][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

As part of a place name the word is found in Lisiduna (perhaps Leisduinen), recorded in 777 in a copy of the late 11th century.^[6][7] As a word of its own it first appears in 839, in a Latin text about a flood over almost all of Frisia, where heaps of sand were called dunos “dunes”.^[7][6] The Vita Willibrordi (1083–1110) says that the people of the coast call such a heap of sand, standing like a strong wall, dunon in their own language.^[6][7] In Middle Dutch the plural dunen “coastal sand hills” is recorded at Oudenburg in West Flanders in 1277.^[16][6]

Semantic evolution

The Middle Dutch word meant a sand hill thrown up by the wind on the shore.^[17][16] To sow grain buten dunen, on the sea side of the dunes, where the waves wash the seed away, was a Middle Dutch image for useless work.^[17] In early modern Dutch duin could also be a small sand hill inland (1546), a sense that survives in the northern Netherlands only in names, and even any hill or mountain: a text of 1621 calls snowy peaks bevrosen duynen “frozen dunes”.^[2] From 1604 the word is also a collective for the whole dune country, the sense of the neuter het duin.^[2][5] Phrases include duin en dal (1621), the blonde duinen of Holland (1854) and het hebben als de konijnen in het duin, to be very well off (1807).^[2] Sailors' language of 1681 also called the highest dunes blinkers after their whiteness.^[18]

Dutch or Low German gave the word to many languages: dún, Düne (known on the German coast from the 15th century), Danish and Norwegian dyne and Swedish dyn, and French dune, recorded since the 13th century.^{[6][8][19][3]} From French it spread to Italian, Spanish and Portuguese (duna), Romanian, Esperanto and, perhaps, English dune, recorded from 1790;^[19][6][20] Czech, Slovak, Polish and Russian have it too.^[19][6][20] Afrikaans has duin.^[1]

Timeline

• 839 – A Latin text records dunos “dunes” as a word of the coast.^[7][6]
• 887 – The Annales Fuldenses have dunos.^[6]
• 1067 – The place name Dunkerka, now Dunkirk, is recorded.^[10][11]
• 1083–1110 – The Vita Willibrordi records the plural dunon.^[6][7]
• 1277 – Middle Dutch dunen “sand hills” is recorded at Oudenburg.^[16][6]
• 1517 – First quotation for the coastal dune in the Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal.^[2]
• 1546 – Duin is used of an inland sand hill.^[2]
• 1604 – Duin is used as a collective for the dune country.^[2]
• 1719 – Duinen appears as a disguised form of duivel “devil” in an oath.^[21]
• 1790 – English dune is first recorded.^[20]

Meanings

Noun

1. A dune: a hill formed by drifting sand.^[5][1][22]
2. (collective) The dunes: the whole range of sand hills, especially along the sea.^[5][22]

Word family

• duinachtig
• binnenduin
• grasduin
• landduin
• rivierduin
• zandduin
• zeeduin
• duinaardappel
• duindoorn
• duinkonijn
• duinlandschap
• duinpad
• duinpan
• duinpieper
• duinplant

Related words

• tuin
• English down
• English dune

Usage notes

In a comedy of 1719 duinen is used in an exclamation as a disguised form of duivel “devil”, with the force of “the deuce”.^[21]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Vries, Matthias de; Winkel, L. A. te, et al. (1882–1998), Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal, 29 vols., 's-Gravenhage / Leiden: Nijhoff / Sijthoff / SDU; supplement 2001; gtb.ivdnt.org
3. ^ a b c Franck, Johannes; Wijk, Nicolaas van (1912), Franck's Etymologisch woordenboek der Nederlandsche taal, 2nd ed., 's-Gravenhage: Nijhoff
4. ^ Haeringen, C. B. van (1936), Etymologisch woordenboek der Nederlandsche taal: Supplement, 's-Gravenhage: Nijhoff
5. ^ a b c d Van Dale Groot woordenboek hedendaags Nederlands (2014), Utrecht / Antwerpen: Van Dale Uitgevers
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Philippa, Marlies; Debrabandere, Frans; Quak, Arend; Schoonheim, Tanneke; Sijs, Nicoline van der (2003–2009), Etymologisch woordenboek van het Nederlands, 4 vols., Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press; online via etymologiebank.nl
7. ^ a b c d e f g Oudnederlands Woordenboek (2009–), Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal, Leiden; gtb.ivdnt.org
8. ^ a b c d Vries, Jan de (1971), Nederlands etymologisch woordenboek, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ a b Vries, Jan de; Tollenaere, Félicien de (2004), Etymologisch woordenboek: onze woorden, hun oorsprong en ontwikkeling, 23rd ed., Utrecht: Het Spectrum, p. 114
10. ^ a b Veen, P. A. F. van; Sijs, Nicoline van der (1997), Etymologisch woordenboek: de herkomst van onze woorden, 2nd ed., Utrecht / Antwerpen: Van Dale Lexicografie
11. ^ a b Sijs, Nicoline van der (2001), Chronologisch woordenboek: de ouderdom en herkomst van onze woorden en betekenissen, Amsterdam / Antwerpen: Veen
12. ^ Sijs, Nicoline van der (2005), Groot leenwoordenboek, Utrecht / Antwerpen: Van Dale
13. ^ Berkel, Gerald van; Samplonius, Kees (2018), Nederlandse plaatsnamen verklaard, Utrecht: Spectrum
14. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
15. ^ Vercoullie, Jozef (1925), Beknopt etymologisch woordenboek der Nederlandsche taal, 3rd ed., 's-Gravenhage / Gent: Nijhoff / Van Rysselberghe & Rombaut
16. ^ a b c Pijnenburg, W. J. J., et al. (2001), Vroegmiddelnederlands woordenboek: woordenboek van het Nederlands van de dertiende eeuw in hoofdzaak op basis van het Corpus-Gysseling, Leiden: Instituut voor Nederlandse Lexicologie; gtb.ivdnt.org
17. ^ a b Verwijs, Eelco; Verdam, Jacob (1885–1929), Middelnederlandsch woordenboek, 11 vols., 's-Gravenhage: Nijhoff; gtb.ivdnt.org
18. ^ Winschoten, Wigardus à (1681), Seeman: behelsende een grondige uitlegging van de Neederlandse konst- en spreekwoorden, voor soo veel die uit de seevaart sijn ontleend, Leiden
19. ^ a b c Sijs, Nicoline van der (2010), Nederlandse woorden wereldwijd, Den Haag: Sdu; with additions from the Uitleenwoordenbank (2015)
20. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
21. ^ a b Sterkenburg, P. G. J. van (2001), Vloeken: een cultuurbepaalde reactie op woede, irritatie en frustratie, 2nd ed., Den Haag: Sdu
22. ^ a b WikiWoordenboek (Dutch Wiktionary), nl.wiktionary.org