Consider the German adjective toll meaning great or mad.
I am looking for the examples of English words (if any) containing some variation of toll and sharing some etymological root with toll (so having a meaning like great or mad).
-
2Welcome to German Language SE. Can you please elaborate how general references such as dictionaries failed to help you? Otherwise your question may be closed. Also note that words with the same etymological origin may strongly deviate in meaning (example). By the way, the linguistic term for what you are looking is cognate. – Wrzlprmft♦ Dec 16 '15 at 8:55
-
2The etymological root of the German word "toll" is not great but stupid/foolish. Did you read: de.wiktionary.org/wiki/toll and en.wiktionary.org/wiki/toll – Iris Dec 16 '15 at 9:01
-
5English "toll" is not related to German "toll" but to German "Zoll". The shared root for English "toll" and German "Zoll" is Latin "telōnēum" and Greek "teloneíon". – Em1 Dec 16 '15 at 9:08
-
2@Iris I've never thought about that but now it raises the question how German "toll" became to mean "great". Perhaps similar story as for English "awesome" or "terrific". – Em1 Dec 16 '15 at 9:13
-
1@CarstenS Using Google is a bit more efficient: google.de/… – Em1 Dec 16 '15 at 10:41
Both, the German toll and the English dull seem to originate from a common origin (Proto-Germanic dulaz) meaning something along the lines of dazed, foolish, crazy, stupid.
Quoting the Wiktionary on toll (boldface mine):
From Old High German tol, from Proto-Germanic *dulaz (“dazed, foolish, crazy, stupid”), cognate with English dull.
-
-
1How does this answer help with the request: "I am looking for the examples of English words (if any) containing some variation of toll and sharing some etymological root with toll (so having a meaning like great or mad)"? – Iris Dec 16 '15 at 10:43
-
@Iris: Because dull is a variation of toll that has the same etymological root? – Wrzlprmft♦ Dec 16 '15 at 10:58
-
-
1@Iris: No, but it has a vaguely similar meaning. Also note that the part of the question that asks for a similar meaning is only an elaboration (at least that’s my understanding) of “sharing an etymological root”, as words from the same etymological root tend to have a similar meaning. However, in this case, language evolution has warped the meaning of the word quite a bit on both sides leading to dull and toll having almost an opposite meaning in the modern versions of the respective languages. – Wrzlprmft♦ Dec 16 '15 at 12:21
