Anybody want a German etymological dictionary (in English)?

[lethargic_man]

One of the things I wanted for my birthday this year was a German etymological dictionary—in English, as my interest in German currently exceeds my ability to understand it. A poke around on the Web revealed the most promising candidate was actually a book published in 1891: An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language by Friedrich Kluge, translated by John Francis Davis. (Some of the etymology will therefore be out of date, but not much more so than my compact (first edition) OED, and in any case once I've established a connection with an English word, I can look that up in my English etymological dictionary.)

Unfortunately, the cheapest I could find (a modern reprint of) this book was £22 on Amazon (or £18.63 secondhand). That's ridiculous, I thought; I'm not paying that for a long out-of-copyright work. So I found myself a scan of Toronto University's (first edition) copy on archive.org, turned it into a print-on-demand book chez Lulu, and bought myself a copy for £6.75 (taking advantage of free P&P in a special offer). The book was supposed to arrive within one to three days of being shipped (the following book I bought from Lulu, by comparison, took only a single day). Only it didn't.

After I'd waited a week and a half and more, I concluded it must have been lost in the post. Since I hadn't paid more for recorded delivery, I wasn't entitled to a replacement copy; so I reluctantly ordered another copy. (This one I had to pay P&P for, but also was able to take advantage of a 20% off offer. Together both copies still came to less than the reprint secondhand or new, but not by very much.)

Lulu notified me on Friday that my book had been shipped, and today I received in the post... two copies of the book, one arriving three days after it had been sent, and one a ridiculous nineteen days (over two weeks late).

So now that the original copy of this book has turned up, does anybody want the second copy (for the price I paid for it, or nearest offer)? Compared to the modern reprint, it's a lot cheaper, but there is a grey background to most pages (resulting from the yellowing of the pages of the scanned copy), and the print quality is probably a little less. (There's also a 33mm margin along the top of each page, as none of the standard twenty-first century page sizes Lulu offered matched that of the original. And I think it's fair to point out the German words are printed, as was normal then, in Fraktur, though I don't think it will take me long to get used to that.)

Comments

[curious-reader.livejournal.com]

Isn't that too confusing for you? It might just give you old words that nobody uses nowadays. It should clearly explain what is not used today and used nowadays instead. I would be interested looking into your book. I am not sure if I want it. I may not look at it again. My father had some Germans from Russia who spoke a very old German. He could hardly understand them. They instead of "Atem" meaning breath "Brodem" which is a very old word for the same but unless you have some historical knowledge about the German language before the 20th century you would not know.

[curious-reader.livejournal.com]

I have two modern PONS dictionaries now. One is relatively old but I was actually happy with it and the other one is bigger and has more words. As told you before they had different word for kipper in German in the new dictionary which I did not understand if I had not the old one. I am reluctant to keep it in case I find more words that are not sufficient translated in the new one.

German etymological dictionary

[mike-koplow.livejournal.com]

Like you, I'm interested in German but not that knowledgeable (I studied it in high school--you probably have a different name for it east of the pond--over forty years ago. I borrowed the etymological vol. of the Grosse Duden from a library about a year ago. It was in German, but it was possible to puzzle it out for the most part. And most of the entries listed a bunch of cognates, including an English one.

Also on archive.org, I found a humongous ginormous 19th c. German dictionary of Middle High German, with some etymology. It's interesting if you're interested in Yiddish etymology--it has some Yiddish words that aren't in used in German any more (at least they're not in any of the giant modern dicts I've looked in).

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

I think you misunderstand me: I did not get it for use as a dictionary to look up German words; I got it in order to learn where the German words I learn from elsewhere came from.

FWIW, my dictionary has both Atem and Brodem. The former is related to the first element in "atmosphere" and the second in "Mahatma"; the second is related to English "breath". :o)

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

I don't need a hardcopy, but thanks for the pointer to the on-line version!