I was once so prolific at blogging. Then I had to mark final exams and get ready to move out of the country, which ate up nearly all of my time. So if you'll excuse me, this will be quick. I was watching the 1943 Danish film Vredens Dag (Day of Wrath) directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer. I thought overall it was quite excellent, and I even learned a bit of Danish too. The plot has a lot to do with accusing people of witchcraft, so they mention the word for "witch" a lot, which is heks. I thought this sounded a lot like the English word "hex," so I looked into the etymology to see if there was any relationship.
I read the word history from the Free Dictionary's website, and it turns out I was right about the relationship, though our word "hex" actually came more directly from German (where the word is hexe) and was borrowed into English from German and Swiss immigrants to Pennsylvania, back when it was a British colony in the 17th and 18th century.
So it's from this that I also ultimately learned the phrase: Min hustru er ikke en heks--my wife is not a witch. It should come in handy the next time we find ourselves in medieval Denmark and accused of witchcraft.
I read the word history from the Free Dictionary's website, and it turns out I was right about the relationship, though our word "hex" actually came more directly from German (where the word is hexe) and was borrowed into English from German and Swiss immigrants to Pennsylvania, back when it was a British colony in the 17th and 18th century.
So it's from this that I also ultimately learned the phrase: Min hustru er ikke en heks--my wife is not a witch. It should come in handy the next time we find ourselves in medieval Denmark and accused of witchcraft.
