DAVID L. GOLD'S ENGLISH, JEWISH AND OTHER ETYMOLOGIES ...

DAVID L. GOLD’S ETYMOLOGIES 195Thirdly, Gold spares no effort in examining external, i.e. non-linguistic circumstancesin which a word could have been coined or changed, borrowed orblended. If “etymology is unthinkable without the broadest exposure to the wideworld”, 25 Gold is doubtless ready to connect his linguistic knowledge with hisexposure to the wide world.Fourth, Gold more often than not appeals to fellow etymologists. He posesquestions and presents problems. But sometimes he is not in a position to givean answer by himself. Then, he does not just leave off, saying that a furtheranalysis would exceed the bounds of his sketch. Quite the contrary, he asks hisreaders for help and continuation of research. This is a practical application ofwhat I tried to express by the slogan “Etymologists of the world, unite!” 26 – anda joyful one because Gold’s studies were written earlier and my slogan was publishedbefore I could see Gold’s volume and in quite an independent context.Generally speaking, cooperation and a sense of community are the Achilles’heel of etymologists. Gold seems to be aware of that and to encourage his fellowsto cooperate and contribute to our togetherness.Marek StachowskiInst. Orientalistyki UJul. Podwale 7PL – 31-118 Krakow[stachowski.marek@gmail.com]2526Page 108 in: Anatoly Liberman: The etymology of the word wife. – Michael Adams,Anne Curzan (eds): Contours of English and English language studies, Ann Arbor2011: 108-134.Page 194 in: Marek Stachowski: Liberman and Levickij: Towards comparative etymologicallexicography of English and Germanic. ‒ SEC 16 (2011): 189-199.