medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Thank you, Nancy. Perhaps I've been unclear. It's "aître" that has the
meaning "churchyard"; Zola's "aire Saint-Mittre" is said to have been
_used_ as a cemetery but "aire" itself, as Denis explained, is just an
open, uncultivated place (often weedy), whose uses, if any, are not part
of the term's basic meaning.** It is this latter word, and its semantic
counterpart in German ("Driesch"), for which I have been wondering if
there isn't a conventional term in English, as there is in French and in
German. If the French and German words are used in toponyms (e.g. "aire
St.-Mittre", "Gereonsdriesch"), then the pieces of land to which they
refer in this usage must be permanently or at least usually left
uncultivated. So one of these could be an "uncultivated area" or a
"fallow area" but not, in English, a "fallow", as the latter noun
implies an intent to cultivate in a coming year.
Since translating "Gereonsdriesch" as "Gereon's fallow" (or "Gereon's
Fallow") would be misleading, I have been saying to myself "Gereon's
fallow area" or "Gereon's uncultivated area". But does English have
some conventional term of art whose significance is that of Fr. "aire"
and Ger. "Driesch"? The examples of the latter occurring in this thread
seem to have been or else certainly were once church properties; is that
common in "aire-" or "-driesch" toponymns and, if so, what terms do
ecclesiastical historians use when translating these?
Best again,
John Dillon
** Though _etymologically_ both words may derive from terms
characteristic of threshing ("aire" < Lat. "area"; "Driesch" < an
ancestor of "dreschen").
On Sunday, June 12, 2005, at 8:23 pm, Nancy McKenna wrote:
> How about "resting place" if it is related to a church yard/cemetary.
>
> Nancy
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "John Dillon" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Sunday, June 12, 2005 11:15 AM
> Subject: Re: [M-R] Saint Mittre
>
>
> > medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and
> culture>
> > German has a word of similar meaning, "der Driesch", seemingly
> related> to German "dreschen", English "thresh", etc. It too
> exists in toponyms
> > of ecclesiastical import, e.g. the "Gereonsdriesch", the street and
> > narrow park in Koeln (for the Deutsch-challenged, Cologne) behind
> the> formerly monastic church of Sankt Gereon.
> >
> > How does one say this in English? I translate "Driesch"
> privately as
> > "fallow area" but have long wondered if there isn't some other
> term for
> > it that has become conventional.
> >
> > Best again,
> > John Dillon
> >
> >
> > On Sunday, June 12, 2005, at 09:22 am, Denis Hue wrote:
> >
> >> Anyway, the "aire" is just a plane place; in the french rural
> >> tradition, it
> >> was the clear place where the wheat was threshed.
> >> Nowadays, it is the resting place bordering the highways.
> >> In old french, the "aire" is just a place non cultivated
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