Comments on: Word of the day - ariandy

by: Danjafrez

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 19:09:11 +0000

Arc’hanti in breton language,
Arghanty in cornish.

by: Simon

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 10:26:57 +0000

Another one is daeardy, dungeon (earth house), which is also dwmsiwn. Also ffermdy, farm house, and arfdy, armoury (arm/weapon house), and ystordy, store room/house.

by: Stuart, London

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 15:30:22 +0000

There is also modurdy in Welsh for garage (the commercial enterprise rather than the little house next to your house for your own car, which is garej in Welsh).

Modurdy is made up of modur (motor) and ty, as above.

by: Seumas

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:38:58 +0000

In Gaelic we use ‘taigh-bidhe’, literally ‘house of food’ (which I’d imagine sounds very similar to bwyty, albeit in inverted form) for restaurant.

by: Sion, Aberystwyth

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 16:52:03 +0000

there’s a lot of this in Welsh; bwyty (bwyd - food + ty - house = restaurant) which is used and llythyrdy (llythyr - letter + mutation of ty = post office) which isn’t used much.

It’s partly an affiramation that Welsh is a language which can adapt to new ideas + we always get the ‘what’s the Welsh word for entrepreneur?’ type question - yes, people do ask that and what’s the Welsh for ambulance/restaurant/bungalo as if all these words are English.

It seems when English use foreign words it shows the superior ability of English to absorb new words and not be narrow-minded. When Welsh does the same thing it’s implied that Welsh is not able to accomodate modern ideas.

Apparently the Welsh word for committee, pwyllgor, was invented by Iolo Morganwg in the early C19th and means pwyll - patience/care and cor - choir = ‘patience choir’. Surprisingly, this is used as well as comiti.

by: Seumas

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 14:46:16 +0000

Interesting.

In Gaelic, ‘airgead’ is silver/money. (From the Greek aurgurion if my memory serves me correctly). And ‘taigh’ is house.

We use the loanword ‘banca’.