Owing to incredible sloth, I do not (yet) have any earlier spellings. From
what I hear of this place, I rather doubt if they were inj the habit of
writing very much down in past times, but I expect some revolutionary
bureaucrat did.
I have written to the department Archives. My slight experience of such
things is that they may well give a thorough answer, filling one with
admiration, but only after the expiry of a decent interval (two or three
months, say)
After all, these fellows are civil servants. Very civilised, too: the last
one wrote to me in Latin.
Anselm Cramer OSB
Ampleforth Abbey, York
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-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Cc: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: 04 March 1999 10:01
Subject: Re: Ste Fripette
>Dear 'hot Fritz', Dom Anselm, Christopher, et al
>
>I'm not convinced, either, by small rags, or vertically-challenged lady
>criminals, and for the same reason I hesitate over food or the cost
thereof. I
>wonder, Otfried, if you're not on firmer ground when you write:
>
>> Always assuming that it is not the more or less distorted derivate of a
>> proper name of presumably Germanic origins (I have nothing special in
mind,
>> but you foreigners do strange things to our names
>
>I hesitate over place-names, particularly those in a foreign tongue.
Etymology
>is a mine-field, specially if we have no early spellings to go on (Is that
so
>in this case, Fr. Anselm?). I take it the 'p' is the problem if a
personal-name
>is postulated. However, it may be worth noting that the Old English list of
>donors to the monastery at Durham (LVD) includes a monk Friubet/Freobet,
which I
>guess is likely to be a reduced form of Frithu- plus (?beorht). (We need
Julia
>Barrow's assistance, here.) Having recently encountered a male St Rosamund
(I
>kid you not), it might be worth considering the personal name option
further.
>
>Christopher, to your knowledge do any other French _lieux_ have a first
element
>'Frip' - and rather more to the point, is it possible that 'b' could become
'p'
>through changes in pronunciation? French colleagues can no doubt help us
out.
>
>Best wishes (What a fascinating range of topics we get through on this
list.)
>
>Graham Jones
>Leicester
>
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