hope:

Question

O.E. hopian "wish, expect, look forward (to something)," of unknown origin, a general Low Ger. word (cf. O.Fris. hopia, M.L.G., M.Du. hopen; M.H.G. hoffen "to hope" was borrowed from Low Ger. Some suggest a connection with hop (v.) on the notion of "leaping in expectation."
What does all that mean?
As far as I know, it translates to "Old English hopian "wish, expect, look forward (to something),...
What does 'general Low Ger. word' mean? and all of those abbreviations that follow it also? thanks very much

Answer 1

Low German is an archaic dialect of the german language spoken in northern Germany. The terrain there is relatively flat, hence the name "Low".

Answer 2

High German (hoch deutsch) is the German that is spoken by educated German speakers, sort of like BBC English I suppose.
Low German is dialects that eventually were winnowed down into German and some other Germanic languages, such as Nederlands, the Dutch language.
One such, maybe, is Frisan, spoken in Friesland, a northern province of the Netherlands along the North Sea. Some of the Frisian Islands along that coast are in Germany. Others are middle low German, middle high German. I do not know what M.Du is unless middle Dutch I suppose. I speak enough Dutch to know that hopen is correct in Holland now.
In any case they are saying that the word comes down to us with Germanic languages in general.

Answer 3

thanks a lot

Answer 4

Thank you for using the Jiskha Homework Help Forum. Just in case you'd like the O.Fris. explained:
O.Fris. Old Frisian, language akin to Eng. spoken on the North Sea coast of modern Netherlands and Germany before 1500. ...

www.etymonline.com/abbr.php

Sra

Answer 5

P.S. the other abbreviations were the languages spoken c. 1100 - c. 1500.
M.L.G. = Middle Low German
M.H.G. = Middle High German
M.Du = Middle Dutch

Sra