Pete's Log: My Own Etymology
Entry #2751, (Random Crap)(posted when I was 46 years old.)
Surprisingly for a casual fan of linguistics and etymology, I have given my own last name relatively little thought. When people ask about it, I explain how it's cognate with German Reich and means something like realm or kingdom or state. If they seem more than casually interested, maybe I'll give some examples like Rijksmuseum or Rijkswacht. The History of English Podcast today suddenly got me thinking about it more.
So first a realization. The Dutch equivalent to Reich isn't Rijks, it's Rijk. Kingdom is Königreich (German) and Koninkrijk (Dutch). The s in Rijkswacht or Rijksmuseum is a genitive singular masculine and neuter ending used as interfix. So the German equivalent to Rijks as its found in Rijksmuseum isn't Reich, it's Reichs. As in Reichsmark or Reichstag.
This should have been clear to me a long time ago, I just never took the time to think about it.
Rijk and reich are not just nouns but also adjectives and as such are cognate with English rich. What got me thinking about my last name was learning today that English rich, German reich and Dutch rijk all come from Proto-Germanic rīkijaz, which was derived from the Proto-Celtic word for king. The Proto-Germanic language did not use the Proto-Indo-European word for king (which became Latin Rex and Sanskrit Raja). But Proto-Germanic did reintroduce the Proto-Indo-European word via Proto-Celtic and used it to denote mighty or powerful or rich as an adjective and kingdom/realm as a noun.
So now when somebody asks about Rijks I have new ways of talking someone's ear off. Or maybe I'll just say it's equivalent to the Latin Rex. Still wondering what the s at the end means. I doubt it's genitive.
Our Rijks ancestors moved to Belgium from across the border in Heythuysen in the Netherlands. There do appear to be a decent number of Rijks's still living there. Maybe I should go ask them.