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> I was wondering about Dutch, where the verb is "beslissen". But from what I gather from a (superficial) search, that comes from "beslitsen", which again comes
by Blikkentrekker 5y ago
> I was wondering about Dutch, where the verb is "beslissen". But from what I gather from a (superficial) search, that comes from "beslitsen", which again comes from "splitsen" (breaking apart).
Do you have this source? all I can found is that it's from Middle Dutch “slissen” which meant “to end” but it isn't terribly well sourced.
- john-aj 5y agoYeah, I think it is more likely that it is related to German "(be)schließen", Swedish "(be)sluta" etc. which originally means "close, shut, join together, lock up" etc. OTOH, that verb usually corresponds to Dutch "sluiten". "(be)slissen" seems to mean the same as "(be)sluiten", but with a different etymology. I'm not sure whether it fits chronologically, but perhaps it is a loan from German or a development, atypical for Dutch, but similar to that in German?
- Blikkentrekker 5y agoIn practice the verb is suppletive with it's synonym “besluiten”. In theory both can be used interchangeably but there seems to be a strong favor to use “beslissen” in the præsent imperfect, and “besluiten” in all other tenses and “aspects”.
- ArnoVW 5y agoDuring my (as said before ! =) short search on "beslissen etymologie" I found [1]. Which seems to list lemmas from several dictionaries, that span a time period of almost a century, and that do not always arrive at the same conclusion. They sort of confirmed the conclusion I always arrive at : etymology is 50% guesswork [1] : http://www.etymologiebank.nl/trefwoord/beslissen http://www.etymologiebank.nl/trefwoord/beslissen