Sunday, 5 June 2011

Abouon - Abound

Language Log èrmèrque:
Abound, on the other hand, comes as a verb (by way of Norman French) from Latin abundare, or in more detail from the OED:
< Anglo-Norman abunder, abounder, habonder, habounder, Anglo-Norman and Old French, Middle French abonder, Anglo-Norman and Middle French habunder (French abonder) (with de or en)
The posting discusses the history and modern usage of adjectival abound in English.

Norman abounder also appears to be the origin of our abouon.
  • abouon d'gens = lots of people
  • y'en avait-i' abouon? = were there lots?
  • j'aim'thais abouon = I'd prefer, I'd rather
  • pas d'abouon = not really

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