[OT]The word 'bylaws' Re: [Squeakfoundation]So....

[Joern Eyrich]

http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=bylaws seems to support this analysis

goran.hultgren@bluefish.se wrote:
> 
> I have (of course) been reading your discussions about how to setup SqF
> and the word "bylaws" got my attention. I have never heard/seen it
> before but I guessed it must come from the nordic languages.
> 
> Swedish:
> 
> by = village
> lag = law
> 
> And there is actually a word "byalag" in Swedish. (all this seems to
> exist similarly in Norwegian)
> 
> So it seems to mean "village law". After checking with Merriam-Webster I
> conclude my guess was semi-correct, "bylaw" seems to indeed stem from
> the scandinavian word "byalag". But there is more to learn here.
> 
> In Swedish the word "lag" both means "law" and "team"/"group of people".
> I would guess (yes, a guess - I may be wrong) that the meaning of the
> word "lag" (as in "law") evolved from "byalag", because it seems to me
> that "byalag" in the beginning referred to a "team of men from the
> village" that got together when something needed to be done that
> required cooperation - like putting a roof on a house or something.
> 
> It wouldn't surprise me if the "will" of this team more and more turned
> into "rules" of the village. So perhaps that is how the word lag (as in
> "law") came about.
> 
> Ok, now you can all smack me in the head and explain to me that it
> actually came from Swahili or something. :-)
> 
> regards, Göran
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