meaning of susanni
Bruce Cox
A 14th century Christmas carol begins:
A child there is this day y-born, (or something like it)
Eia, eia, susanni, susanni, susanni.
The Oxford Book of Carols cites a German carol with identical second line,
but gives no indication of meaning for susanni, and it does not appear in
any dictionary I own.
The only guess I have heard is that it is a corruption of Hosanna.
Can anyone confirm this or supply a meaning not based entirely on guesswork?
And if "Eia" is anything except a nonsense word, I'd be interested in that
as well.
Cheers,
bruce
--
Bruce Cox br...@maths.usyd.edu.au
School of Mathematics and Statistics F07 +61 2 9351 3814
University of Sydney 2006
AUSTRALIA
William C Waterhouse
In article <oun2k9r...@maths.usyd.edu.au>,
>
> A 14th century Christmas carol begins:
>
> A child there is this day y-born, (or something like it)
> Eia, eia, susanni, susanni, susanni.
>
> The Oxford Book of Carols cites a German carol with identical second line,
> but gives no indication of meaning for susanni, and it does not appear in
> any dictionary I own.
It's definitely German. The Grimm _Woerterbuch_ in fact quotes the
German carol from a 1635 copy:
"von himmel hoch engel kommt
eya eya susani susani susani..."
The "susani" here is one of various spellings (sussanine, sauseninne,
susenyn), of which the book treats "sauseninne" as the principal
entry. It means "lullaby", though it is not the main German word
for that nowadays. The root is "sausen" (usually "saeuseln" in this
sense nowadays), meaning to murmur or hum. There are a number of old
examples of its use in the sense of something you sing or hum softly to
make a baby sleep.
"Eia" is basically just a cry (variant of "Ei!"), though it seems
to have specific associations with children (the word "eiapopaia" is
another word for a lullaby).
William C. Waterhouse
Penn State
SLHinton17
William C. Waterhouse, Penn State, says:
>It's definitely German. The Grimm _Woerterbuch_ in fact quotes the
>German carol from a 1635 copy:
> "von himmel hoch engel kommt
> eya eya susani susani susani..."
>The "susani" here is one of various spellings (sussanine, sauseninne,
>susenyn), of which the book treats "sauseninne" as the principal
>entry. It means "lullaby", though it is not the main German word
>for that nowadays. The root is "sausen" (usually "saeuseln" in this
>sense nowadays), meaning to murmur or hum. There are a number of old
>xamples of its use in the sense of something you sing or hum softly to
>make a baby sleep.
>"Eia" is basically just a cry (variant of "Ei!"), though it seems
>to have specific associations with children (the word "eiapopaia" is
>another word for a lullaby).
*********************
Many thanks to Prof. Waterhouse for this answer. Would that all a.u.e.
postings were so civilized and informative!
Sam Hinton
La Jolla, CA
kg6b...@gmail.com
Kathy Goodchild
Harrison Hill
are on to you :)
Related to "susurration"?