synonym of Peitsche (“whip”) · scourge (whip used for flagellation) · scourge (persistent source of harm, especially when seen as divine punishment)
çekim: çoğul Geißeln · tamlayan Geißeln
eş: Bakteriengeißel, Flagellum
köken: From Middle High German geisel(e), from Old High German geisila (“whip”). Cognate with Dutch gesel. The spelling with -ß- reflects sporadic devoicing; compare the frequent pronunciations of niesen or Preiselbeere. Its use for distinguishing between Geißel and Geisel (“hostage”) is an arbitrary convention, which fully established itself only around 1900. (The two words are not related but became…
aile: begeißelt, Geißel der Menschheit, Geißelhieb, geißeln
a scourge (whip) · a scourge (source of persistent trouble)
çekim: çoğul gissels · tamlayan gissels
eş: plåga, piska, spö, stav
köken: Old Swedish gisl and the older gesl, having feminine gender. Used in the 1541 Bible translation with the plural gisslar. Corresponding to Old Norse geisli, related to Old Norse geirr (“spear”), Old English ger (“spear”) and English gear. Cognates include Icelandic geisli, German Geißel, Dutch gesel.
From Middle French fouet, diminutive in -et of Old French fou (“beech”), from Latin fagus. Since the morpheme boundary was no longer felt in Middle French, [u.ɛ] was contracted to [wɛ] and this later developed regularly to [wa] (as it did in oi, oe). The contemporary pronunciation was reinforced by the spelling and the desire to distinguish from foi, foie and fois.