Etymology
During its history, the village has had numerous variations of its current name: Hultshusin prope Ribesangin, Holtshusen bi Ribesangen, Holtzhusen prope Lympurg, Hulzhusen zo der lynden and Lynnenholzhausen.
The name Lindenholzhausen is a compound noun comprising the nouns Holz, Hausen, and Linde. Holz, meaning timberBrE/lumberAE, probably originates from the Old Saxon "holt" meaning forest, wood, timber/lumber and the Old High German "hulta" also meaning timber/lumber. The noun Hausen which in standard German is only found as a suffix in place names (the verb hausen means to dwell, to reside) probably originates from the Old High German "husen" meaning hamlet or settlement. The compounds "holtshusen", "hultshusen" and similar would mean hamlet/settlement (in the clearing) in/ the forest/wood. Linde, meaning limeBrE/lindenAE tree, would extend the compound Holzhausen to mean hamlet/settlement with the lime/linden tree (in the clearing) in/ the forest/wood.
Although this method of identifying a location may seem somewhat arbitrary, it does uniquely identify the village within the whole of Germany; a query for Holzhausen in the online postal code index (PLZ suchen) of the German Post returns 71 results, whereas a query for Linden''holzhausen returns just one. As if rendering homage to its distinguishing nature, a single lime/linden tree is depicted on the escutcheon of the village's coat of arms. This was the Gerichtslinde of the area. In fact these were several trees in a sequence through the centuries, the last one fell victim to a lightning in the 1930s. A new linden was planted after WWII, but not at its historic site, which however still bears the field name ("Flurname"). The villages current court of arms is based on the justice court seal of 1486: in gold a stylized, green linden tree with roots. Lindenholzhausen was one of the seats of a "Grafschaftsgerichts" (countship justice court)of the Counts of Diez and is mentioned in the sources thus in 1342 and 1485. The "Kirchspielgericht" (parrish justice court) of Lindenholzhausen (denoted thus in 1486) was a civil and criminal court. It comprised Lindenholzhausen (where the court bldg. was situated) the villages of Eschhofen with Mühlen, Dietkirchen and the no more existing places of Rübsangen, Vele, Mailstatt (near Eschhofen) and Kreuch (within the Limburg bridgehead settlement).
Read more about this topic: Lindenholzhausen
Famous quotes containing the word etymology:
“The universal principle of etymology in all languages: words are carried over from bodies and from the properties of bodies to express the things of the mind and spirit. The order of ideas must follow the order of things.”
—Giambattista Vico (1688–1744)
“Semantically, taste is rich and confusing, its etymology as odd and interesting as that of “style.” But while style—deriving from the stylus or pointed rod which Roman scribes used to make marks on wax tablets—suggests activity, taste is more passive.... Etymologically, the word we use derives from the Old French, meaning touch or feel, a sense that is preserved in the current Italian word for a keyboard, tastiera.”
—Stephen Bayley, British historian, art critic. “Taste: The Story of an Idea,” Taste: The Secret Meaning of Things, Random House (1991)