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Origin and meaning of Escher?
by Castle (guest)
10/6/2004, 11:18 AM
Could someone help me with the origin and meaning of the name Escher? I know it's usually a surname, but I've seen it as a male first name. Thanks.
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- menke   +3
10/6/2004, 11:42 AM
the surname Escher means 'from Esch', where Esch is a placename. There are several places called Esch in Germany. The meaning of these placenames refers to the presence of ashtrees at the place of settlement. Esch is the German word for the ashtree.
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- Andy (guest)   +2
10/6/2004, 1:29 PM
Correct! Plus …There is a second derivation of "Esch" as well: Middle High German "esch" from Old High German "ezisk" (related to "eat"), originally meaning "corn" but also "(sowed) field" (Saatfeld). It is not clear whether the various German place-names Esch, Esche or Escher are taken from the tree or the field (the Grimm brothers say in their dictionary, that most of them are from the field).The ash tree (German: Esche) hat nothing to do with ashes, whereas the German surname Escher may well be another word for "Köhler" (with o umlaut) meaning charcoal-burner. So this would be number three.Andy ;—)
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- menke   +1
10/7/2004, 1:40 AM
ah, that's true off course, that field-story. In Dutch, the ashtree is es , but es is also a field in Dutch.
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- Castle (guest)
10/7/2004, 7:31 AM
Thank you both!
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