03 Nov 2016, 6:49 pm
anagram wrote:
according to the dictionary app i have on my ipad (i'm not sure what the real source is), it's even more complicated and confusing than that, and it has to do with the guinea fowl (which, funny enough, in portuguese is known as "angola fowl"). this is from the etymology entry for the word "turkey":
about the word "peru", apparently the misconception existed (that peru was where the bird came from), but it was based on the habit of using the name peru to refer to all the hispanic lands in the americas (just like in brazil it's common for people to refer to lebanese immigrants as -- guess what -- turks
)
Quote:
1540s, "guinea fowl" (Numida meleagris), imported from Madagascar via Turkey, by Near East traders known as turkey merchants. The larger North American bird (Meleagris gallopavo) was domesticated by the Aztecs, introduced to Spain by conquistadors (1523) and thence to wider Europe, by way of North Africa (then under Ottoman rule) and Turkey (Indian corn was originally turkey corn or turkey wheat in English for the same reason). The word turkey was first applied to it in English 1550s because it was identified with or treated as a species of the guinea fowl. The Turkish name for it is hindi, lit. "Indian," probably via Fr. dinde (contracted from poulet d'inde, lit. "chicken from India"), based on the common misconception that the New World was eastern Asia. The New World bird itself reputedly reached England by 1524 at the earliest estimate, though a date in the 1530s seems more likely. By 1575, turkey was becoming the usual main course at an English Christmas.
about the word "peru", apparently the misconception existed (that peru was where the bird came from), but it was based on the habit of using the name peru to refer to all the hispanic lands in the americas (just like in brazil it's common for people to refer to lebanese immigrants as -- guess what -- turks
)Wow!
That IS complitcated.
But interesting. Yes...it was the Aztecs of Mexico (not the Incas of Peru) who first introduced the Turkey to Europeans.
Interesting that the New World foul got from Spain to the rest of western Europe the long way through Muslim North Africa and then through Turkey- rather than going directly up the Atlantic seaboard of Europe to France and England. Notice that the turkey eating at Christmas custom became established in England by the late 1500's. So when the Pilgrims had their famous feast in post 1620 in the colonies - turkies were already old hat for the English colonists. You tend to assume that the local Massachusettes Indians introduced them to turkies.
Next mystery:
How did guinea pigs (which really do come from the Andes Mountains region around Peru) come to be called "guinea pigs"? Not only are they not pigs, but "Guinea" is on the west coast of Africa!
03 Nov 2016, 7:24 pm
naturalplastic wrote:
Next mystery:
How did guinea pigs (which really do come from the Andes Mountains region around Peru) come to be called "guinea pigs"? Not only are they not pigs, but "Guinea" is on the west coast of Africa!
How did guinea pigs (which really do come from the Andes Mountains region around Peru) come to be called "guinea pigs"? Not only are they not pigs, but "Guinea" is on the west coast of Africa!
that one seems to be less complicated but more of a mystery. because... yeah, how come?
the two possible explanations that the same dictionary gives are these:
Quote:
1664, native to South America and is so called either because it was first brought back to Britain aboard Guinea-men, ships that plied the triangle trade between England, Guinea, and South America; or from confusion of Guinea (q.v.) with the South American region of Guyana.
neither one seems terribly convincing. and, no surprise, the guinea pig is known as "little pig from india" (porquinho da índia) in portuguese. according to wikipedia, they're called "pigs" possibly because they were kept in "pig pens" in ships. not terribly convincing either
11 Nov 2016, 2:54 am
11 Nov 2016, 3:46 am
24 Dec 2016, 12:48 pm
03 Mar 2017, 11:26 pm
04 Mar 2017, 11:40 am
04 Mar 2017, 5:12 pm
IstominFan wrote:
In German, "ass" means "ace." In English, it means a fool, a donkey or the rear end. I laughed like crazy once when I saw the word on a card in a German children's game.
One of the dances I do regularly in my folk dance class is "Kisa Pada," a Croatian rain dance. The word "kisa" is Finnish for "cat." Zapata is Spanish for shoes. I call it "the cat shoe dance." The fog rolls in on little cat feet!
One of the dances I do regularly in my folk dance class is "Kisa Pada," a Croatian rain dance. The word "kisa" is Finnish for "cat." Zapata is Spanish for shoes. I call it "the cat shoe dance." The fog rolls in on little cat feet!
To correct a little bit, kisa means a race or (a game of some kind) in Finnish. It is usually used in a plural form on spoken language (for example urheilukisat (meaning sports event) or children might say "otetaan juoksukisa" meaning "let's have a race and run".
Correct word for a cat is kissa. This might sometimes confuse Swedish speaking persons dramatically people because verb kissa means to urinate or pee in Swedish.
To confuse people more in the same-like differences between same language group, the word and verb kiss (or to kiss) is equivalent of kyss or kyssa in Swedish. (Sounds nearly same to a German word tschuss - informal way of saying good bye)
05 Mar 2017, 10:23 am
09 Apr 2017, 9:20 pm
09 Apr 2017, 10:34 pm
09 Apr 2017, 11:32 pm
kitesandtrainsandcats wrote:
(okay, that isn't strictly technically a false friends thing, and burros don't have toes....)[/i]
wut? of course they do. as do all other perissodactyls.
(burro meaning "donkey" in spanish and portuguese
) 
09 Apr 2017, 11:48 pm
Kiprobalhato wrote:
kitesandtrainsandcats wrote:
(okay, that isn't strictly technically a false friends thing, and burros don't have toes....)[/i]
wut? of course they do. as do all other perissodactyls.
And Google finds ...
... that I was right when I thought I was wrong and being silly.
Interesting.
Quote:
"Odd-toed" or "odd-hoofed" mammals make up the Perissodactyla. Like the "even-toed" Artiodactyla, perissodactyls are unguligrades; that is, they walk on the terminal bones of the toes and have enlarged toenails forming hoofs. Unlike artiodactyls, perissodactyls either walk on three toes (like rhinos, tapirs, many extinct horses, and other extinct groups) or on a single toe (like recent horses).
Only seventeen species of perissodactyls remain on the Earth today, a shadow of the group's former glory. Perissodactyls were once much more diverse, including the enormous horned brontotheres, the bizarre browsing, clawed chalicotheres, and the largest land mammal of all time, the Eocene Indricotherium (formerly known as Baluchitherium). It stood five meters (over sixteen feet) tall at the shoulder.
Only seventeen species of perissodactyls remain on the Earth today, a shadow of the group's former glory. Perissodactyls were once much more diverse, including the enormous horned brontotheres, the bizarre browsing, clawed chalicotheres, and the largest land mammal of all time, the Eocene Indricotherium (formerly known as Baluchitherium). It stood five meters (over sixteen feet) tall at the shoulder.
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/mammal/mes ... ctyla.html
10 Apr 2017, 2:40 am
i have also learned a thing 
chalicotheres...never heard of 'em. (my god how goofy they must have looked)
lately for me it's been "why can't i go a day on here without reading a thing i've already read?"
*********
english fabric (meaning: fabric) and spanish fábrica (meaning: factory)
a spanish word for fabric being tela
19 Apr 2017, 4:17 pm
31 Dec 2017, 9:03 am
In Russian, друг/drug = friend
In English, drugs are not your friend 
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