They were talking about tattoos this morning on Radio Cymru and one of the presenters used the word croenlun, which I hadn’t heard before but could understand from the meaning of its component words – croen (skin) and llun (picture, image). This word doesn’t appear in any of my Welsh dictionaries so I suspect it isn’t very common – the usual Welsh word for tattoo is tatŵ.
Other Welsh words containing croen include croendenau (skin thin) – touchy sensitive; croendew (skin thick) and croengaled (skin hard) – thick-skinned, callous; and croeniach (skin healthy) – unhurt, unharmed.
The English word tattoo comes from one of the Polynesian languages – perhaps the Tahitian and Samoan tatau or the Marquesan tatu, which mean “puncture, mark made on skin”.
The image on the right was sent in by a visitor to Omniglot who would like to know if anybody recognises the symbol.
It looks like a tattoo and the symbol does look vaguely familiar to me, though I’m not sure where I’ve seen it before.
Oh, I really like it how they used a Welsh word instead of the loan word 🙂 A good way of keeping the language living and full of expression…
“A good way of keeping the language living and full of expression…”
I see what you mean, but isn’t English (for example) ‘living and full of expression’ despite (or because of?) the many loanwords that have been incorporated into the language? I appreciate, though, that it could be argued that English can ‘afford’ to do this because of its dominant status.
“I appreciate, though, that it could be argued that English can ‘afford’ to do this because of its dominant status.”
Indeed, English and Welsh have quite a different situation. I think using newly-made Welsh words can do a great job in demonstrating that Welsh is no less flexible and practical than English.
The picture: A basketball hoop and backboard? A gallows?
I quite like croenlun though it’s never used. I quite like tatŵ too, as it shows the capacity of Welsh orthography to adopt foreign words and concepts effortlessly. The good news is that Welsh speakers have a choice of two words which they can now use to describe what’s known as a ‘tattoo’.
On the theme of ‘croen’, there’s a Welsh saying to describe someone who always looks miserable – ‘mae croen ei din ar ei dalcen’ – his arse’s skin is on his forehead.
Will we end up with a verb “croenlunio”?
‘croenlunio’ – done already!
Dwi ‘di cwympo mewn cariad gyda’r dywediad Croenlun yn barod dyma’r tro cynta’ i mi glywed i gair yma a byddai’n ei ddefnyddio o hyn ymlaen,
Croenlunio – Tatooing
Croenlunydd – Tattoist
Croenlunfa – Tatto salon
Croenlunyddiaeth – Tattoism
(i could go on and on, I’ve found a new word to play with hehe i love it.)