So, I confess myself a bit suspicious of whether the last bit really means what it’s supposed to do/what the Patronus claims it does. The reason being that in both English and German, the direct object of the respective modern cognates of [ge]win[n]an, “to win” and “gewinnen”, indicate the prize, not the foe: The latter is in both cases indicated as an indirect object employing a suitably confrontational preposition.
Like so: In order to win (gain) the princess, the knight must win against (subdue) the dragon.
Being neither a proper scholar of OE nor of linguistics, I obviously can’t rule out that the intended/suggested sense is valid even so, but whenever English and German show commonalities of this ilk, the natural assumption is that both preserve something present in their common root, rather than that analogous changes occurred independently in both, surely.
If there are any Scandinavian-speakers around, it’d be good to hear if the corresponding constructions function the same in that branch of the Germanic tree as well.
ETA: Ah, I skipped over the assumption that the verb is indeed meant to be the one which gives us the modern “to win”, rather than the one whence we get “to wean” and which would mean something along the lines of “growing accustomed to or familiar with”, as another poster suggested. So, I’m retroactively adopting and stating that one now. :)
Greetings, forum!
So, I confess myself a bit suspicious of whether the last bit really means what it’s supposed to do/what the Patronus claims it does. The reason being that in both English and German, the direct object of the respective modern cognates of [ge]win[n]an, “to win” and “gewinnen”, indicate the prize, not the foe: The latter is in both cases indicated as an indirect object employing a suitably confrontational preposition.
Like so: In order to win (gain) the princess, the knight must win against (subdue) the dragon.
Being neither a proper scholar of OE nor of linguistics, I obviously can’t rule out that the intended/suggested sense is valid even so, but whenever English and German show commonalities of this ilk, the natural assumption is that both preserve something present in their common root, rather than that analogous changes occurred independently in both, surely.
If there are any Scandinavian-speakers around, it’d be good to hear if the corresponding constructions function the same in that branch of the Germanic tree as well.
ETA: Ah, I skipped over the assumption that the verb is indeed meant to be the one which gives us the modern “to win”, rather than the one whence we get “to wean” and which would mean something along the lines of “growing accustomed to or familiar with”, as another poster suggested. So, I’m retroactively adopting and stating that one now. :)