Bizzare etymologies of common words in various languages

[Theodoric]

"Baragouiner" a french verb which means "saying some incomprehensible stuff" comes from the bretons "bara gwin" which mean "bread and wine".

It's also the origin of the Dutch word 'Bargoens', which is the name of the Dutch thieves cant.

Names can have the weirdest etymologies. Germanic names, like Slavic ones, usually have two name elements; with quite some exceptions, like Otto, Hugo, Emma, etc. And each of those name elements has a certain meaning. However quite early on, those name elements were stuck together just because they sounded nice, not because they meant anything in conjunction.

While some are just weird, others like 'Dietlinde' (people + soft) and 'Sieglinde' (victory + soft) are outright bizarre.

 

[EdM]

Wow. I knew Donetsk was founded by a Welshman and the local geographic terms are calques of some anglophone names, but... wow ! Tsarist Russia seems to have had more contact with the British isles than visible at first glance...

I wonder where the Russian term 'prospekt' came from. It's used to denote streets in Moscow that are essentially boulevards, yet I recognize the english word 'prospect' in it.

 

[mojojojo]

Ancient people were so terrified of bears that they did not say the word "bear" out of fear that it would catch ones attention, so the modern word for "bear" in many northern European languages (including English) are derived from euphamisms that were used.

I have heard that is why the fairy folk were referred to as "The Good Neighbors", "The Gentry" Etc.

 

[Nekromans]

Does Cinderella's glass slipper fit here?

The shoe wasn't "verre" (glass) but rather "vair" (fancy squirrel fur). Perrault messed up.

The way I heard it wasn't that she was wearing fur slippers, but rather that "fur slipper" was a euphemism - and that the Prince went around the kingdom, trying on every fur slipper he could get his hands on (hem hem) to find Cinders. Such dedication!

 

[Henriksson]

Any Swedish word with the prefix veder tends to have pretty confusing etymology.

 

[Neala]

The way I heard it wasn't that she was wearing fur slippers, but rather that "fur slipper" was a euphemism - and that the Prince went around the kingdom, trying on every fur slipper he could get his hands on (hem hem) to find Cinders. Such dedication!

Considering the double entendres in most fairy tales that wouldn't surprise me one bit

 

[Easterling]

Here is someting from romanian historian Neagu Djuvara (although he credits someone else for the ideea, but I can't remember whom):
He points out that the romanian words plecare/a pleca (to leave) is realated to the spanish word llegar (to arive). He claims that both these words are derived from the latin plicare (to fold) which has allso given in romanian the word a apleca (to lower, to bow). Apparently, "Plicare!" was an order in the Roman army for folding the tents and breaking camp, and allso an order in the Roman navy for folding the sails and stopping the ship in a port. So a legion dispatched from Rome to Iberia could, upon meeting a native, tell him that they had "plicated" just a few hours ago in the nearby harbour, while a legion dispatched from Rome to Dacia could inform the locals that they had "plicated" in Rome some weeks ago. So the word was understood in one place as a term for arriving and in the other as a term for leaving.

BTW, tramvai allso exists in Romanian language, and with the same meaning. It must have entered first in one of the languages of eastern europe and been copied later by the others.

 

[Tocomocho]

Both English "Bigot" and Spanish "Bigote" have an ultimately common origin: Germanic "Bei Gott", an exclamation meaning literally "By God!".

Yet one means Fanatic and the other Moustache. Go figure.

 

[Makemakean]

Tory, from Middle Irish tóraidhe, strictly speaking outlaw, pursued man, commonly used to refer to Irish cattle thieves. Exactly why the Whigs decided that those who supported the right of a Catholic to rule England as king were similar to cattle thieves, I have no clue. And seeing how the Tories lost big time in 1688, I have yet to understand why those more conservative Whigs who rallied behind the "Independent Whig" Pitt the Younger decided to adopt the label, and why, despite decades of "Tory" rule by men who hated that their factions were labelled such ways, seeing they didn't consider themselves to have anything in common with the Tories of 1688 at all, Benjamin Disraeli grew so fond of it, I have no frakking clue.

But I don't care. The Conservative Party of today seems to have been fond of calling themselves Irish cattle thieves since the 1850s, so, why not? If you want to call yourself a cattle thief, I'll play along.

 

[Marc Pasquin]

"Baragouiner" a french verb which means "saying some incomprehensible stuff" comes from the bretons "bara gwin" which mean "bread and wine".

This come from the basic words you needed to know in a given language. someone who "baragouine" a language is someone who can at least ask for "bread & wine" in that language.

You can call a pub "bistro", a term which comes from Russian "fast" (or something like that).

Apparently came during the occupation of paris by russian troops following the napoleonic wars. Soldiers yelled a lot at the waiters it would seem and it stuck. Considered by some to be a folk etymology (but a cool one).

 

[Easterling]

Apparently came during the occupation of paris by russian troops following the napoleonic wars. Soldiers yelled a lot at the waiters it would seem and it stuck. Considered by some to be a folk etymology (but a cool one).

Apparently, the soldiers were forbidden to drink (to prevent any incidents that would make the ocuppation troops more unpopular) so they yelled "quick! quick!" when ordering a drink so they could be done with it and gone before an officer could catch them in the act.

 

[Petike]

Excellent stuff. Keep it coming. It's fascinating how many absolutely common words had such a convoluted origin...

Apparently, the soldiers were forbidden to drink (to prevent any incidents that would make the ocuppation troops more unpopular) so they yelled "quick! quick!" when ordering a drink so they could be done with it and gone before an officer could catch them in the act.

You have to hand it to those Russian soldiers - they were pretty cunning.

 

[Remicas]

This come from the basic words you needed to know in a given language. someone who "baragouine" a language is someone who can at least ask for "bread & wine" in that language.

Aparently it has both signification. The wikitionary say

baragouiner
to gibber, jabber, garble, muddle one's words
to speak (a language) badly

The first meaning comes from the fact back in the days all the french people didn't speak Franch but their regional language/dialect/patois, so when they went to another region and asked bread and wine in a inn/tavern (bara gwin, so) the innkeeper could'nt understand what he was saying.
Another use of the term is when two people have a conversation in a language you don't understand.

Apparently came during the occupation of paris by russian troops following the napoleonic wars. Soldiers yelled a lot at the waiters it would seem and it stuck. Considered by some to be a folk etymology (but a cool one).

Sorry I should have tell it myself earlier. Nevertheless thank you for adding the explications.

 

[Dathi THorfinnsson]

"Que Dalle", in french means nothing, nada, "there's nothing".

It likely comes from occitan "Que d'aila", "only a wing" as when you eat a chicken, when you have the wing...well you have almost nothing to eat.

---

"Pedigree" comes from french "Pied de grue" because the foot of this animal looks like a genealogic tree.

Grue=crane.

 

[RPW@Cy]

This one is interesting, given how certain homophobic teenagers will use "that's gay" to refer to anything they don't like: "bad" itself has an etymology tied up with gender. It's theorized to be derived from baeddel, meaning a hermaphrodite, or an effeminate man.

For the vast majority of kids it's nothing to do with homophobia - kids have always invented their own slang, and if it confuses, embarrasses or annoys the older generation then all the better. If anything, it's a backhanded complement - gays are now seen as sufficiently normal and mainstream to be worth a spot of teenage rebellion.

As evidence of which, I'd cite a personal observation - I'm just about old enough to remember when gay rights was a cool, edgy and rebellious issue and the stuffy, reactionary defenders of linguistic conservatism were protesting about "these people" stealing their word (gay, as in merry) and changing it in ways that they found distasteful. Now the edgy rebels of yesteryear are the stuffy reactionaries of today protesting about "these kids" stealing their word (gay, as in homosexual) and changing it in ways that they find distasteful. Plus ca change...

 

[LSCatilina]

Coward, came from the french "coué" which litteraly mean "tied" with a tie.

Indeed, the ennemies were "coués" aka "demoniacs" by definition. Late the suffix -ard, that mark the denigrement and the despisement was added to give "couard" -> "really bad demons".

Finally the definition of coward change during the middle ages to give the actual meaning as if the ennemy is demonic, he's also a chicken heart.

Eventually coward remained in english, while "couard" is somewhat archaising and "lache" (coming from the verb "lacher", "to drop") was preferred.

 

[Zioneer]

Ancient people were so terrified of bears that they did not say the word "bear" out of fear that it would catch ones attention, so the modern word for "bear" in many northern European languages (including English) are derived from euphamisms that were used.

Isn't "bruin" or "brown one" basically the word(s) used in place of "bear"?

 

[mojojojo]

Ok, here is a monkey related one the word Macaque http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macaque comes from the word Kaku which means mangabey http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mangabey in several African languages of the Congo region the plural in these languages is formed by adding the prefix Ma. Portuguese heard the natives referring to groups of monkeys as Ma-Kaku and in their pronunciation it became Macaque which eventually became the name for a mostly Asian family of monkeys.

 

[Dan1988]

OK, here's one of those things which I need to ask a native speaker of French. The French word "dépanneur" has two different meanings, depending on which country you are in - in France, it's a handyman of sorts, whereas in Canada it means a convenience store. This leaves the question - where did the two different meanings originate from?

 

[LSCatilina]

OK, here's one of those things which I need to ask a native speaker of French. The French word "dépanneur" has two different meanings, depending on which country you are in - in France, it's a handyman of sorts, whereas in Canada it means a convenience store. This leaves the question - where did the two different meanings originate from?

I would say from the verb "Dépanner" that have the meaning of

Helping someone to achieve a certain task
("Depanner" someone by giving him money by exemple)

So a "Depanneur" in France is someone that help to reparation, an in Canada a "Depanneur" help by being here to sell things at low price.