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ArchivesRe: An Interesting Surname...
in reply to a message by AndrewJKD
If it's a German surname (which I believe it is), it's ZÜNDEL. This is the same as ZUNDEL or ZUNDER (original pronunciation: TSOON-dell / TSOON-der).
German (also Zündel): from a diminutive of Zunder, a metonymic occupational name for a seller of kindling wood, from Middle High German zunder ‘tinder’.
(Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press)
Rosa und Volker Kohlheim, Familiennamen, Mannheim 2000, has the same, but restrains the meaning to what is obviously "German tinder" in English (a sort of mushroom growing on trees). A "Zündel" would have been someone who collects and sells this. Grimm's Deutsches Wörterbuch says the same.
German (also Zündel): from a diminutive of Zunder, a metonymic occupational name for a seller of kindling wood, from Middle High German zunder ‘tinder’.
(Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press)
Rosa und Volker Kohlheim, Familiennamen, Mannheim 2000, has the same, but restrains the meaning to what is obviously "German tinder" in English (a sort of mushroom growing on trees). A "Zündel" would have been someone who collects and sells this. Grimm's Deutsches Wörterbuch says the same.
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