gaffel

Forms

gaffel f or m (plural gaffels, diminutive gaffeltje n)^[1] Eastern and southern dialects (Achterhoek, Veluwe, Kampen, the Bommelerwaard, North Brabant) also have gavel, already Middle Dutch gavel(e).^[2][3] The noun was masculine in older Dutch and still is in Flanders.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle Dutch gaffele, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *gabulu (“fork, pitchfork”).^[5][1][3] The EWN reconstructs Proto-Germanic *gabló, found only in West Germanic: Old Saxon gafala and gaflia, Old High German gabala, Middle High German gabele, Middle Low German gaffel (modern German Gabel) and Old English geafol (modern English gaffle “crossbow lever; steel spur of a fighting cock”).^[5][6] The voiceless doubled ⟨ff⟩ before /l/ is regular, as in snuffelen and schoffel.^[2][5]

The only related words are Celtic: Old Irish gabul (“fork, gallows”), Welsh gafl (“fork”) and Breton gavl (“fork”); Latin gabalus (“gallows, cross”) was borrowed from Celtic.^[5][6][2] Wiktionary takes the West Germanic word itself as a loan from Gaulish.^[1] Beyond this the etymology is unclear.^[5][6] Franck–Van Wijk considered a root meaning “to grasp”, as in Latin habeō (“I have”), but Van Haeringen warned against going further than Irish and Gaulish Latin.^[2][7] Hellquist thought of gapen, and the Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal and Vercoullie also explained the fork from its gaping prongs; the EWN finds a link with gevel unlikely and suggests that the word, of narrow range and naming a wooden tool, may come from a substrate.^[5][4][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first found in a family name in 1284, jhanne gaffelkine “Johan Little-Fork”.^[5][9][10] A Brabant text of 1300 speaks of eenen houten gaffele “a wooden fork”, and a Flemish text of 1330 records a payment omme ghavelen “for forks”.^[3][5] The Teuthonista of 1477 glosses gavel as “fork”.^[5][11]

Semantic evolution

Borrowed vork, from Latin furca, narrowed the use of gaffel in Dutch, and in English fork almost entirely displaced the native word;^[5][3] German and Swedish, by contrast, have eaten with a Gabel or gaffel since the 17th century, the Scandinavian word being a loan from Low German.^[5][3] In Dutch the gaffel stayed the farmer's two-pronged hayfork, as in a line of 1671 about grabbing the fork with two iron prongs.^[4] Seventeenth-century poets called Neptune's trident his gaffel (1612).^[4] The saying van de gaffel in de greep, “from the two-pronged fork into the three-pronged one”, means from bad to worse.^[12][10]

On ships a gaffel is the spar that rests against the mast with a forked jaw and holds the head of a sail;^[13][14] Winschoten explained in 1681 that it was named from its likeness to the farmer's hayfork.^[13][14] The gaffelbok, a roebuck whose antlers have a second prong, is recorded from 1862.^[5]

In this nautical sense the word passed into German, Swedish, Estonian, Polish and Russian, and Danish and Norwegian took gaffel “fork”;^[15][5] Van der Sijs counts the obsolete English gaffle among the loans too, while the EWN derives it from Old English.^[15][5]

Timeline

• 1284 – The family name Gaffelkine is recorded.^[5][9]
• 1300 – Eenen houten gaffele “a wooden fork” is recorded in Brabant.^[3]
• 1330 – The form ghavelen appears in Flemish accounts.^[3][5]
• 1477 – The Teuthonista glosses gavel as “fork”.^[5][11]
• 1612 – Gaffel is used for Neptune's trident.^[4]
• 1681 – Winschoten describes the gaffel of boeiers and smacks.^[13]
• 1862 – Gaffelbok is first recorded.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A stick, branch or rod that divides at one end into two arms or prongs.^[14][16]
2. A two-pronged pitchfork, used for hay, sheaves or dung.^[14][4][1]
3. (nautical) A gaff: a spar that rests against the back of a mast with a forked jaw and slants upwards, carrying a sail.^[14][16][1]
4. (hunting) The two-pronged antler of a young stag or roebuck.^[1][17]
5. (heraldry) A Y-shaped charge like a pall, sometimes with three prongs.^[14][17]

Word family

• gaffeler
• begaffelen
• gaffelhert
• gaffelzeil
• gaffelvormig
• gaffeltuig
• gaffelbok
• hooigaffel
• mestgaffel

Related words

• German Gabel
• English gaffle

Usage notes

In West and East Flemish a separate word gaffel means “mouth, gob”, and in Brabant and Bruges “(big) nose”;^[18][19][20] Debrabandere derives it from gapen.^[18][19][20] The curse krijg stront aan je gaffel! was reported from Hengelo, where gaffel may mean the mouth or the penis.^[21]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Franck, Johannes; Wijk, Nicolaas van (1912), Franck's Etymologisch woordenboek der Nederlandsche taal, 2nd ed., 's-Gravenhage: Nijhoff
3. ^ a b c d e f g Verwijs, Eelco; Verdam, Jacob (1885–1929), Middelnederlandsch woordenboek, 11 vols., 's-Gravenhage: Nijhoff; gtb.ivdnt.org
4. ^ a b c d e f 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
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c Vries, Jan de (1971), Nederlands etymologisch woordenboek, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ Haeringen, C. B. van (1936), Etymologisch woordenboek der Nederlandsche taal: Supplement, 's-Gravenhage: Nijhoff
8. ^ Vercoullie, Jozef (1925), Beknopt etymologisch woordenboek der Nederlandsche taal, 3rd ed., 's-Gravenhage / Gent: Nijhoff / Van Rysselberghe & Rombaut
9. ^ a b Vries, Jan de; Tollenaere, Félicien de (2004), Etymologisch woordenboek: onze woorden, hun oorsprong en ontwikkeling, 23rd ed., Utrecht: Het Spectrum, p. 132
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. ^ Stoett, F. A. (1923–1925), Nederlandsche spreekwoorden, spreekwijzen, uitdrukkingen en gezegden, 4th ed., 3 vols., Zutphen: Thieme
13. ^ a b c 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
14. ^ a b c d e f Algemeen Nederlands Woordenboek (2009–), Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal, Leiden; anw.ivdnt.org
15. ^ a b Sijs, Nicoline van der (2010), Nederlandse woorden wereldwijd, Den Haag: Sdu; with additions from the Uitleenwoordenbank (2015)
16. ^ a b Van Dale Groot woordenboek hedendaags Nederlands (2014), Utrecht / Antwerpen: Van Dale Uitgevers
17. ^ a b WikiWoordenboek (Dutch Wiktionary), nl.wiktionary.org
18. ^ a b Debrabandere, Frans (2002), West-Vlaams etymologisch woordenboek: de herkomst van de West-Vlaamse woorden, Amsterdam / Antwerpen: Atlas
19. ^ a b Debrabandere, Frans (2005), Oost-Vlaams en Zeeuws-Vlaams etymologisch woordenboek, Amsterdam / Antwerpen: Atlas
20. ^ a b Debrabandere, Frans (2010), Brabants etymologisch woordenboek: de herkomst van de woordenschat van Antwerpen, Brussel, Noord-Brabant en Vlaams-Brabant, Zwolle: Wbooks
21. ^ Sterkenburg, P. G. J. van (2001), Vloeken: een cultuurbepaalde reactie op woede, irritatie en frustratie, 2nd ed., Den Haag: Sdu