Delete, Protect, administrator
8,485
edits
Changes
→Gueuze, Geuze
[[File:FrenchFirstRepublic.png|thumb|France under The First Republic. The departement of Dyle, containing Brussels and much of the Pajottenland, can be seen in the Northeast corner in pink. Source: wikipedia ]]
Just as with the term ''lambic'', there is still no general consensus on the etymological history of the word ''gueuze '' as it relates to beer. Gueuze is the French spelling whereas geuze came into use is used in the Belgo-Dutch dialect. Present-day Lembecq was initially part of the French département of Dyle under The First Republic of France. Created in 1795, Dyle’s primary urban city was Brussels, solidifying its position as a French-speaking region until it was handed over to The Netherlands in 1815 after the fall of Napoleon I. In the years between 1815 and 1830 when Belgium gained its political and territorial independence from The Netherlands, the town remained a quasi French-speaking area of Flemish Brabant.
Guinard (1990) claims that it was in the town of Lembecq where the gueuze appellation was born. He writes that in 1870 “the mayor of Lembecq, who owned a brewery, hired an engineer by the name of Cayaerts. Together, they decided to apply the ''méthode Champenoise'' to referment lambic beer in a bottle.” It was initially called ''“lambic des gueux”'' as a nod to the mayor’s liberal political party.<ref name="Guinard">Jean-Xavier Guinard, [[Books#Classic Beer Styles: Lambic|Classic Beer Styles: Lambic]], 1990</ref> Acknowledging again the important role that beer has played among the peasantry, it is interesting to note that the word “''gueux''” can best be translated as the obscure French word for beggar or commoner and that the feminine form of the noun is ''gueuse.'' The feminine form of the word is used today as a derogatory word for a womanbut bears no phonological difference to the word ''gueuze''. Should this story hold true, as further research is needed, then the linguistic home of gueuze is very closely tied to its geographical home of the [[Main_Page#Pajottenland|Pajottenland]].
Looking into the words ''gueux/gueuse'' (French) and ''geuze/geuzen'' (Dutch) the historical strand becomes clearer. While it is unclear which term came first (French of Dutch) or if they existed simultaneously, the plural Dutch word ''Geuzen'' historically identifies a group of Calvinist Dutch nobles who opposed the Spanish rule of the Netherlands between 1581 to 1714. It can also be used to refer to a subset of historical beggars, pirates, or privateers in Dutch. As Spanish power waned in the early part of the 18th century France repeatedly invaded the territory. French incursions into the area forged linguistic ties in Flemish Brabant, and the County of Hainaut (now part of present-day France and Belgium (where Hal/Halle/Lembecq) is located) and remain an integral part lambic history today.