Feudel

German

Etymology

Borrowed from Low German Feudel, Feul, Feil, either from or cognate with Dutch feil (“floorcloth”, attested 1616). Further origin uncertain. Ripuarian Fuddel (“old rag”), if related, would suggest that the d is original, whereas all of the following theories require that it is due to hypercorrection:

  • From Old French faille (“headscarf, veil”), but this is itself of unknown origin and the sense is only a vague match.
  • From Proto-West Germanic *fāgil(u), *fegil(u), a hypothetical tool noun of *fāgōn, *fegōn (“to clean, brush”), whence Dutch vagen, German fegen.
  • From corruption of Proto-West Germanic *þwahilu, tool noun of *þwahan (“to wash”). Compare Dutch dweil, Middle Low German dweile (“cleaning cloth, floorcloth”). This would be the easiest explanation as Dutch dweil and feil are entirely synonymous. A development þw → f is also phonetically plausible, though there seem to be no analogous examples.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈfɔʏ̯dəl/
  • Audio:(file)

Noun

Feudel m (strong, genitive Feudels, plural Feudel)

  1. (Northern Germany) a cloth for cleaning, especially a floorcloth
    Synonyms: Aufnehmer, Putzlappen, Scheuerlappen, Wischlappen

Declension

Declension of Feudel [masculine, strong]
singular plural
indef. def. noun def. noun
nominative ein der Feudel die Feudel
genitive eines des Feudels der Feudel
dative einem dem Feudel den Feudeln
accusative einen den Feudel die Feudel

Derived terms

Further reading

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.