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Help[Surname] Re: But what does SPIELDENNER mean? (nt)
in reply to a message by Jim Young
You are right: "dener" or "denner" is not important, I guess. Now your theory sounds very interesting. But I can't find anything like "dener" or "denner", not even in Grimm's 33 volume Wörterbuch, and they should really have it. All I could find was Old High German (time of Charles the Great) "dennen", which corresponds with the modern word "dehnen" (stretch, spread). Any ideas with that?
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I think we must accept Herr Grimm's monumental work as the last word. On dennen/dehnen I've no idea. I have found another spelling of the name, Spieldiener. Could this have something to do with Dienen, alluding to service of some sort?
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SPIELDIENER is a good one! Grimm has: "die knaben wurden sogleich ergriffen, von ihren spieldienern und erziehern abgesondert." Sagen 431
"The boys were seized at once and separated by their spieldieners and educators (or: teachers)." So a spieldiener would have been something like a private playing tutor?
"The boys were seized at once and separated by their spieldieners and educators (or: teachers)." So a spieldiener would have been something like a private playing tutor?
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