Talk:hazel

what rhymes with hazel— This unsigned comment was added by 92.9.228.221 (talk) at 18:28, 16 July 2008.

See Rhymes:English:-eɪzəl.—msh210℠ 18:43, 16 July 2008 (UTC)

Etymology: A connection with hansel?

I'm not sure about the connection to Corylus or Corylos.

Is there a connection with the name 'Hansel' (as in Hansel and Gretel)? Seeing as how Hansel is merely the diminutive of Hans (nickname for Johannes), Hazel would merely be a variation along a similar theme.

Similarly with hazelnut as denoting the small, ordinary nut of that tree: a 'johnny-nut.' Cf. other uses of Johnny. 198.177.25.10 19:26, 1 October 2008 (UTC)

No, there is no connection with Johannes or Hansel. There is no German masculine name "Hazel"; the German onomastics for that name are pretty thorough. See Seibicke's 4 volume Vornamenbuch. --EncycloPetey 19:37, 1 October 2008 (UTC)

RFD discussion: July–August 2022

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hazel

Yola. On page 46 of Jacob Poole's Glossary, our principal source for Yola, we find the following entry for hawlse, which hazel is listed as a alternative form of:

1867, Jacob Poole, A Glossary, with Some Pieces of Verse, of the Old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland‎^[1], London: J. Russell Smith, page 45:

Hawlse. Hazel. Also to lay a spirit.

However, this is clearly a misinterpretation of the Glossary. hazel cannot be a alternative form of hawlse, as "also to lay a spirit" makes no sense as a definition on its own. Instead, "hazel" should be interpreted as a definition of hawlse alongside "to lay a spirit", which would allow us to put this erroneous entry to rest. Further evidence for this interpretation is that the Englisn Dialect Dictionary lists halse as a word for hazel found in Devon and Somerset. These locales are highly suggestive; Yola is clearly akin to the dialects of Southwestern England, as evidenced by features such as voicing of initial fricatives and retention of past participial y- (as ee-) and third-person singular -(e)th. As for the etymology of ha(w)lse, it is clearly a metathetic form of Middle English hasel; compare neal (“needle”), which is from a ME metathetic nelde (unsurprisingly, Southwestern English traditional dialects also have metathetic forms such as neald and neel for "needle"). Hazarasp (parlement · werkis) 16:51, 16 July 2022 (UTC)

The definition of Yola hawlse, “also to lay a spirit”, doesn’t make sense there either. I suppose that Poole meant:

hawlse:

1. (noun)  hazel;
2. (verb)   to lay a spirit.

I have no clue as to the meaning of this sense 2, but “Also” was very likely not meant to be part of Poole’s definition of the second sense.  --Lambiam 08:32, 17 July 2022 (UTC)

This interpretation of “Also” is corroborated by such entries as

“Oathès. Oats. Also athes, swearing.”^[2]

 --Lambiam 08:47, 17 July 2022 (UTC)

A 19th-century English–Latin dictionary gives Latin “manes relegare” for To lay a spirit,^[3] meaning as much as “to banish a spirit”. I suppose this corresponds to our sense 2 of the verb to lay: “(transitive, archaic) To cause to subside or abate”.  --Lambiam 09:08, 17 July 2022 (UTC)

Delete. I’ve fixed hawlse.  --Lambiam 11:42, 18 July 2022 (UTC)

Deleted; I was going to delete it myself as an obvious error but I see Zff19930930 has beat me to it (thanks). - -sche (discuss) 23:23, 17 August 2022 (UTC)