Bizzare etymologies of common words in various languages

[January First-of-May]

Everybody seems to be so fascinated with Germany In Finnish, the country is called "Saksa", a derivation of Saxony.

In Russian, the country is, er, Germany (well, Germaniya - Германия), but the people inhabiting it are called "немцы" (nemtsy) - literally "mute".

 

[Easterling]

the word tauta would have meant something simular to alle maenner.

Do you happen to know if "alle maenner" is the origin of the name Alleman (for the allemanic people)?

In the western romance languages (Gallo-Roman and Ibero-Roman) the word for "work" came from the latin "tripalium" that is a torture device.

The italian use the regular word "lavorare", as breton and english, and the romanian "lucra" cames from "lucrare" that means "working during night".

If we are on the subject of work, do I have to remind you that the word "robot" comes from the slavic robota (to work). BTW, robota exists in Romanian too, but it is used strictly to mean the work that a serf had to do for his lord.

In Russian, the country is, er, Germany (well, Germaniya - Германия), but the people inhabiting it are called "немцы" (nemtsy) - literally "mute".

These words exist in most if not all east-european languages. The name "nemtsy" must have something to do with slavs not being able to understand the German's language.

 

[Gonzaga]

The italian use the regular word "lavorare", as breton and english, and the romanian "lucra" cames from "lucrare" that means "working during night".

Is there any relation with lucrum (profit)?

 

[Marc Pasquin]

Considering we have members from both places, I'm surprise this hasn't been mentioned:

The european french Gosse which mean children comes from the italian gonzo ("peasant"). The word itself is a bit of a shift but due to parallel evolution in Quebec with the word Gousse ("clove of garlic"), there is a modern homophone used in french speaking north-america also spelled Gosse but meaning "testicles". As you can imagine, this as lead over the years to some.... ahem.... interesting misunderstandings between the cousins from across the ocean:

French guy: Do you have any gosses ?
Quebec guy : errr... yeah... 2....
French guy: Love them ?
Quebec guy : guess so
French guy: Play with them often ?
Quebec guy : bit private aint it ?
French guy: always kiss them at night ?
Quebec guy : look mate, I'm with a construction company, not the cirque du soleil

 

[Thande]

The latin word "equus" was the normal name for a horse. But in romance languages, as well in gaelic, it was the word "caballus" that replaced it.
"Caballus" is probably from gaul origin and means "a nag".

The way I heard it, "equus" was formal Latin and "caballus" was vulgar Latin.

 

[LSCatilina]

The way I heard it, "equus" was formal Latin and "caballus" was vulgar Latin.

It was the same language, as in English "hound" and "dog" is two different words for the same.

 

[kasumigenx]

"Gascony" is the german translitteration of "Vasconia", the country of the Vascons, while "Basque" is the occitan translitteration of "Vascon" (with the "v" pronounced "b").

To resume, the latin area of Vasconia have a germanic name, while the non-latin have a latin name. Questions?

But didn't *w and gu- became *g in Occitan and Standard French which are now spelled as gu- and g-.

 

[LSCatilina]

But didn't *w and gu- became *g in Occitan and Standard French which are now spelled as gu- and g-.

I don't get your point, Vasconia being pronounced vasˈkuɲa and not was'kuɲa.
In occitan the sound v became oftenly "b" as in vin (bin) or vaca (bakə).

The change in -g, as you said, came from the sound w. But if the tribe of Vascones was waskones for the sound, the name of the region was with a sound v, and it's why it changed in a b.

 

[mojojojo]

More primate stuff

The Tarsier gets it's name from it's elongated Tarsus
The Loris gets it's name from the archaic Dutch word loeres, which meant simpleton
and marmoset originally meant a small gargoyle and come from the Latin marmor (marble)
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...tOCWCQ&usg=AFQjCNGCZcgrlm4XUuK4X9XymdvtbiVh8A

 

[Alex1guy]

I've always wondered why so many different cultures have similar words for Mother (Ie. Mama) It seems to crop up in many languages, which have never had contact with each other while they were developing (Spanish and Mandarin both have the word Mama for example. Or Cook Island Maori and Russian)

What is the origin of this word?

 

[Dathi THorfinnsson]

The Tarsier gets it's name from it's elongatedTarsus
The Loris gets it's name from the archaic Dutch word loeres, which meant simpleton
and marmoset originally meant a small gargoyle and come from the Latin marmor (marble)

and a monkey is a little monk. (Originally specifically capuchin monkeys, later generalized. Ape used to be the word for all monkeys.)

 

[Marc Pasquin]

I've always wondered why so many different cultures have similar words for Mother (Ie. Mama) It seems to crop up in many languages, which have never had contact with each other while they were developing (Spanish and Mandarin both have the word Mama for example. Or Cook Island Maori and Russian)

What is the origin of this word?

There's a therory that it comes from the sucking sound of the child on the mother's breast, the "mmmm" sound

 

[LSCatilina]

The arab word "sifr" gaves three words :

-"Chiffre", from medieval latin cifra, that is what represent number composition : 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0.

-"Chiffre", or cipher in english, as the means of crypting a message

-"Zero" from italian zefiro.

---

Tennis came from the french "Tenez!" the served said when he launched back the ball.

---

Random cames from "Randonner" (to walk, and in an old sense, running in...well random ways), that cames from "randon" (in a impetous manner) that cames itself from "rant"...Aspirin someone?

 

[kasumigenx]

I don't get your point, Vasconia being pronounced vasˈkuɲa and not was'kuɲa.
In occitan the sound v became oftenly "b" as in vin (bin) or vaca (bakə).

The change in -g, as you said, came from the sound w. But if the tribe of Vascones was waskones for the sound, the name of the region was with a sound v, and it's why it changed in a b.

*w was once spelt as v actually.

 

[LSCatilina]

*w was once spelt as v actually.

Yes, but at the era of the formation of Gasconia/Basconia, you had already the distinction between waskons and Vaskonia.

 

[Thande]

There's a therory that it comes from the sucking sound of the child on the mother's breast, the "mmmm" sound

You're mixing up two different things there. All children everywhere make the "Ma" sound first when learning to talk. This is interpreted differently depending on the local language. In a lot of languages it sounds vaguely like the word for mother, so "Mama" or similar becomes a pet name/baby talk name for mother. However, in Latin for instance "Mam" means breast, so in Roman times people thought that babies learning to talk were simply saying "Milk now, bitch!" rather than "Mummy!"

 

[mojojojo]

and a monkey is a little monk. (Originally specifically capuchin monkeys, later generalized. Ape used to be the word for all monkeys.)

Well, I know the word monkey did not appear in written English until the 16th century some other theories are that it is a diminutive of the Spanish mono, while others claim it comes from mannekin (small man)

 

[Kaiphranos]

The arab word "sifr" gaves three words :

-"Chiffre", from medieval latin cifra, that is what represent number composition : 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0.

-"Chiffre", or cipher in english, as the means of crypting a message

-"Zero" from italian zefiro.

And to make matters worse, cipher itself is also a somewhat outdated term for zero:

2. (dated) a zero; a figure 0.
• figurative a person or thing of no importance, esp. a person who does the bidding of others and seems to have no will of their own.

 

[Dathi THorfinnsson]

Well, I know the word monkey did not appear in written English until the 16th century some other theories are that it is a diminutive of the Spanish mono, while others claim it comes from mannekin (small man)

True, it's not completely clear.

 

[LeX]

In Chinese, various characters approximating the sounds of a foreign loanword are used to represent it. In some cases the characters used will have interesting meanings not associated with the original foreign word.

An example is the names of nations:
- America (MeiLiJian): Abbreviated to MeiGuo, or "Beautiful Country"
- Britain (BuLieDian): Written alternately as YingGuo, meaning "Heroic Country". The "Ying" part of it means "English".
- France (FaLanXi): Abbreviated as "FaGuo", or "Lawful Country".
- Germany (DeYiZhi, meant to approximate "Deutsch"): Abbreviated to DeGuo, it means "Virtuous Country".
- Soviet Union (SuWeiAi LianMeng): This is a mouthful, so people just call it "SuLian". "Su" is not really a commonly used character, but it happens to mean "revival", which is interesting. The Japanese also use the abbreviation, pronounced "Sou-ren" in their language.