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Help[Facts] Re: Putzlien (etymology
in reply to a message by (Is-rah-el) Israelle
First, there is Upper German Butzerl (from Butz, eventually from Burkhard) as a hypochoristic name prevalent in the region and time in question.
I am also thinking of the German word Putz "attire, adornement, ornament" (now archaic) but I have no idea if this relates to a Hebrew masculine name as a translation; a quick Wiktionary search reveals nothing relevant to me. The somewhat archaic German words Kopfputz "head wear" and sich aufputzen "to dress up" relate to this concept; today the normal meaning of putzen is "to clean, to make clean".
Going deeper into Butz/Putz I recover another meaning, "mask", as in Fasnachtsbutzen "people wearing carnival masks".
Last, but not least there is the Butzemann "bogeyman", a mythological creature from German folklore recently becoming a meme in Catalonia.
I am also thinking of the German word Putz "attire, adornement, ornament" (now archaic) but I have no idea if this relates to a Hebrew masculine name as a translation; a quick Wiktionary search reveals nothing relevant to me. The somewhat archaic German words Kopfputz "head wear" and sich aufputzen "to dress up" relate to this concept; today the normal meaning of putzen is "to clean, to make clean".
Going deeper into Butz/Putz I recover another meaning, "mask", as in Fasnachtsbutzen "people wearing carnival masks".
Last, but not least there is the Butzemann "bogeyman", a mythological creature from German folklore recently becoming a meme in Catalonia.
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I don't know Yiddish, but I know one major difference between German and Yiddish is that Yiddish frequently makes use of word names (quite a few Yiddish names are also translations of Hebrew names, many of which are word names), while German does not.
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The issue is that we also don't know the usage of the word Putz in the Medieval Judeo-German vernacular, it might differ from middle High German
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