They's darker than us! Wooph!
Posted on 11/03/2013 1:06:33 PM PST by elengr
Schwarzenegger == "black Amish person"
This misinterpretation of the meaning of Governator Ah-nald’s name is commonly made by English speakers with a just enough knowledge of German to get into linguistic deep do-do, PC-wise. :)
Several theories exist about the etymology of Arnold’s surname, but before I go there, first note that in German, his surname linguistically breaks down to Schwarzen-Egger. The position of the glottal stop makes it completely impossible for the “n” to belong to the back half of the compound word.
Apparently, several decades ago, Arnold once told David Letterman that his name meant "black farmer" (I don't think his English was very refined back then - and how many people really know where their names come from?).
If his ancestors had hailed from northern Germany, “Egger” could possibly be a dialectal version of Acker, which loosely means field or acre(s) in a farming sense. Thus a similar English name might have started as “John of Blackacres” (referring to fertile land or just black soil). However, this usage apparently was unique to Prussia and the German north lands (and, of course, Arnold is Austrian).
“Egge,” meaning “harrow” (a plow-like farm tool used to break up the soil), also could be the name root, so Arnold’s ancestors might have been “black harrowers” (either referring to the type or color of the tool or the dirty appearance of the people - sort of like black coalminers). But, unlike Baker, Smith or Farmer (Bauer in German), harrowing was not a profession, being commonly done by all farmers, but only briefly on a seasonal basis. So this occupational name origin also is not very likely.
I lived for a time in Switzerland. “Egg” is common to place names there (I vaguely recall that there even is a Swiss village of Schwarzenegg). The farm dialects in Bavaria and Austria, though not as extreme, are similar to Swiss. I was told that Egg means Eck[e] - corner (or edge in a geographical sense), so Schwarzenegger could be one who comes from “black corner” as in coming from a village on the edge of a “black forest” or nestled up against a black soil ridge or dark cliffs on the edge of the Alps.
Anyway, this geographical name origin seems the most likely to me, that is, Schwarzenegger is just a serf or inhabitant who hails from the town or dominion of Schwarzenegg (a geographical description of place).
I remember that particular interview and Arnold told Dave it meant “black plowman” except it sounded something like “b’lock p’lau-mahn.” To which Dave said, “Does Maria’s family know this?”
Schwartzkopf-———Blackhead
My ancestral name is Honegger. We’ve always believed it means high place or high peak. The name traces back to the Zurich region in the early 1500s.
Are his people from Schwarzenegg? That would make him a Schwarzenegger.
I like my variant. See tag line:
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