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Help[Surname] Re: Hakluyt
in reply to a message by Marc
I am Dutch, and when I first laid eyes upon this surname, my first impression was that this surname is of Dutch origin as well. Words containing -uy- are usually very clearly archaic Dutch, as the modern spelling would always be -ui-. For example, in earlier times, "house" would be spelled as huys (modern Dutch spelling is huis), "fortune" would be spelled as fortuyn (modern Dutch spelling is fortuin), and so on.
Assuming that the surname is indeed of Dutch origin, then the first element definitely refers to the verb "to hack", which is hakken in modern dutch (archaic Dutch spelling would have been hacken). The second element could have been derived from the Dutch adjective luttel "little" (as in: a small amount of something), but it could also have been derived from the Dutch noun lui (archaic spelling: luy), which is a more informal way of saying "people". It's easy to mistake this with the Dutch adjective lui meaning "lazy", but I doubt "lazy" really is the correct etymology here. If we think about the fact that lui "people" becomes luitjes in diminutive form, we know that the archaic spelling of the diminutive would have been luytjes. As such, the surname could originally have been "hackluy(tjes)" or "hakluy(tjes)", literally meaning "hacking people(s)", which must have been a very informal (maybe even derogatory) term for woodcutters.
But, considering that earlier forms of the Hakluyt surname include the form Hakelutel, then it seems most likely that the second element was originally derived from Dutch luttel "little" (as I already mentioned before). So, even if we assume that the surname is of Dutch origin, the "hack little" meaning prevails. But the surname could just as easily be English in origin, since the English words "to hack" and "little" differ very little from their Dutch equivalents.
"How do you pick up the threads of an old life? How do you go on... when in your heart you begin to understand... there is no going back? There are some things that time cannot mend... some hurts that go too deep... that have taken hold." ~ Frodo Baggins
Assuming that the surname is indeed of Dutch origin, then the first element definitely refers to the verb "to hack", which is hakken in modern dutch (archaic Dutch spelling would have been hacken). The second element could have been derived from the Dutch adjective luttel "little" (as in: a small amount of something), but it could also have been derived from the Dutch noun lui (archaic spelling: luy), which is a more informal way of saying "people". It's easy to mistake this with the Dutch adjective lui meaning "lazy", but I doubt "lazy" really is the correct etymology here. If we think about the fact that lui "people" becomes luitjes in diminutive form, we know that the archaic spelling of the diminutive would have been luytjes. As such, the surname could originally have been "hackluy(tjes)" or "hakluy(tjes)", literally meaning "hacking people(s)", which must have been a very informal (maybe even derogatory) term for woodcutters.
But, considering that earlier forms of the Hakluyt surname include the form Hakelutel, then it seems most likely that the second element was originally derived from Dutch luttel "little" (as I already mentioned before). So, even if we assume that the surname is of Dutch origin, the "hack little" meaning prevails. But the surname could just as easily be English in origin, since the English words "to hack" and "little" differ very little from their Dutch equivalents.
"How do you pick up the threads of an old life? How do you go on... when in your heart you begin to understand... there is no going back? There are some things that time cannot mend... some hurts that go too deep... that have taken hold." ~ Frodo Baggins
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