On Thu, 5 Feb 2004, Jerry Friedman wrote: #> On Feb 4, 2004, at 4:44 PM, Mark A Mandel wrote: #[snip] # #> > OED OnLine (using "<dh>" for the Icelandic letter edh) says: #> > #> > app[arently] for earlier *bathask, after ON. ba<dh>ask, in later Icel. #[snip again] # #Just to clarify, it's not of Icelandic origin. It's from (or #"after") an Old Norse (ON.) word. The later Icelandic word is a #cousin of our English word, not an ancestor. Good point; thanks. I think of edh as an Icelandic letter because AFAIK that's the only modern language that uses it (and thorn as well). #Spearwielder Peaceman Nice! I'd most likely be be Hammer Almondtree (if my father hadn't taken "-baum" off his last name in the Army in WW2). -- Dr. Whom, Consulting Linguist, Grammarian, Orthoepist, and Philological Busybody a.k.a. Mark A. Mandel