Author: Simon

I am a linguist, web developer and musician. I live in Bangor in Wales and run Omniglot - the online encyclopedia of writing systems and languages, as well as making the Radio Omniglot Podcast.

Go Climb a Tree

By Simon

Was the b in climb ever pronounced? Or was it added by interfering busybodies to make it more like a Latin root? Is it related to clamber? Let’s find out.

Climbing wildcat

Climb comes from Middle English climben [ˈkliːmbən] (to scale, scale, soar, extend, reach), from Old English climban [ˈklim.bɑn] (to climb), from Proto-West Germanic *klimban (to climb), from Proto-Germanic *klimbaną [ˈklim.bɑ.nɑ̃] (to climb), possibly from *klibaną/*klibāną (to stick, cleave), from Proto-Indo-European *gleybʰ- (to stick, cling to) [source].

So the b was pronounced in Middle and Old English, and maybe it became silent when the word lost its en ending.

Words from the same roots include climbing, cleave, cliff and maybe clamber in English, klimmen (to climb) and kleven (to stick, glue, be sticky) in Dutch, kleben (to glue, stick) in German, and klífa (to climb) in Icelandic [source].

A word for to climb in Latin was scandere / scandō, which also means to ascend, mount or clamber. It comes from Proto-Indo-European *skend- (to jump, dart, scale, scan). Words from the same roots include ascend, descend, transcend, scale, scan, and possibly scandal and slander in English, ascendere (to go up, ascend, rise) in Italian, skandera (to chant) in Swedish, and esgyn (to ascend) in Welsh [source].

One of the tunes that was played at the music session I went to last night is called If you do not love me, go climb a tree (it may have other names) and goes something like this:

It inspired me to write this post. If you recognise the tune and know it by another name, do let me know.

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Swallowing Camels

By Simon

This week my Danish lessons have been focusing on idioms, and an interesting idiom that came up is sluge en kamel, which literally means ‘to swallow a camel’, but what other meanings does it have? Let’s find out.

Kameler

According to Wiktionary, this idioms means ‘to accept a change or amendment (to a proposal)’ or ‘to agree to something one would not have if one had fully understood the implications from the beginning’.

According to Den Danske Ordbog, it means ‘acceptere eller gå med til noget der egentlig strider imod ens idealer og ønsker’ (to accept or agree to something that actually goes against one’s ideals and desires), and another version of the idiom is sluge kamelen (to eat the camel).

According to SpeakAndLearn.dk, it means ‘to admit that you are wrong, even though you have clearly stated that you were absolutely sure, that you were right’.

So it seems it has a variety of meanings. Are there similar idioms involving camels in other languages?

In English, you might liken doing something unpleasant or undesirable to swallowing a frog – Mark Twain is sometimes quoted as having said or written “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” There’s apparently no evidence that he did in fact say or write this. The idea of eating a frog in the morning possibly comes from Nicolas Chamfort, a French writer, who wrote in the 1790s:

… il faudrait avaler un crapaud tous les matins, pour ne trouver plus rien de dégoûtant le reste de la journée, … (it would be necessary to swallow a toad every morning so as not to find anything else disgusting during the rest of the day)

[source]

Other interesting Danish idioms involving animals include:

  • klap lige hesten (‘just pat the horse’) = shut up, relax, take it easy
  • det blæser en halv pelikan (‘it’s blowing half a pelican’) = it’s very windy and the weather is awful
  • Jeg har ikke en rød reje (‘I don’t have a red shrimp’) = I’m skint, I have no money
  • ingen ko på isen (‘no cow on the ice’) = everything is okay – whatever the problem is, it’s not a big deal so don’t worry about it
  • så er den ged barberet (‘then the goat is shaved’) = the work has been done, or the problem has been resolved

Source: https://ling-app.com/da/funny-danish-phrases/

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Language Quiz

By Simon

Language quiz image

Here’s a recording in a mystery language.

Do you know, or can you guess, the language?

If you need a clue, listen to or read the Omniglot News on Radio Omniglot.

These quizzes are normally published every Sunday, and the answers are given the following Saturday here in the comments.

The House of Jeroboam

By Simon

The other day I was looking for how to say confusion in Welsh, and one of the translations I found was (‘roedd popeth) fel tŷ Jeroboam, which means ‘(everything was) in confusion’, or literally ‘(everything was) like the house of Jeroboam’. This got me wondering who was Jeroboam, and way was his house in confusion?

Jeroboam

According to Wikipedia, Jeraboam I, a.k.a. Jeraboam som of Nebat, was the first king of the northern Kingdom of Israel between c. 931/22-910/901 BC. During his 22-year reign, there was continual war between him and Rehoboam (רְחַבְעָם), the first king of Judah. So perhaps that’s why Jeraboam is associated with confusion.

The name Jeroboam comes from Hebrew יָרָבְעָם‎ (Yārŏḇʿām), which comes from רִיב‎ ‎ (rīḇ) and עַם‎‎ (ʿam). Possible meanings of the name include “the people contend”, “he pleads the people’s cause”, “his people are many” or “he increases the people”.

Jeroboam Mathusalem, Salmanazar ...

The word Jeroboam can also refer to a 3 litre bottle of champagne or Burgundy wine (a.k.a. double magnum), or a 4.5 litre bottle of Bordeaux wine (a.k.a. Rehoboam) [source].

Other names for wine / champagne bottle sizes include: Piccolo (0.1875 litres), Chopine (0.25 litres), Demi (0.5 litres), Magnum (1.5 litres), Imperial / Methuselah (6 litres), Salmanazar (9 litres), Balthazar / Belshazzar (12 litres), Nebuchadnezzar (15 litres), and Melchizedek / Midas (30 litres) [source].

Other ways to refer to confusion in Welsh include: dryswch, penbleth = confusion (of mind); anhrefn, tryblith, llanast(r), cybolfa, annibendod = confusion (disorder).

Other Welsh phrases that mean ‘(everything was) in confusion’, like (‘roedd popeth) fel tŷ Jeroboam, include:

  • (‘roedd popeth) blith draphlith = (everything was) topsy-turvy, higgledy-piggledy, mixed (up), in confusion, in a muddle
  • (‘roedd popeth) yn siop siafins = ‘(everything was) like a shop of (wood-)shavings’
  • (‘roedd popeth) yn draed moch = (everything was) was a mess, confusion, rack and ruin, disaster (‘like pigs feet’)
  • (‘roedd popeth) yn siang-di-fang = (everything was) higgledy-piggledy, topsy-turvy, extremely untidy, in confusion, mess, disorder.
  • (‘roedd popeth) ar gychwyn = ‘(everything was) about to start’
  • (‘roedd popeth) ar hyd y lle = ‘(everything was) all over the place’
  • (‘roedd popeth) yn garlibwns = ‘(everything was) a heap, an untidy mass, confusion, curd’
  • (‘roedd popeth) yn glamwri = ‘(everything was) grief, trouble, clamour’
  • (‘roedd popeth) yn gawdel = ‘(everything was) a caudle, hotchpotch, medley’
  • (‘roedd popeth) yn gabidwl/gabwdwl = ‘(everything was) chaos, confusion, disorder’

Sources: Geiriadur yr Academi and Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru.

Coming across the phrase (‘roedd popeth) fel tŷ Jeroboam also inspired me to write this song in Welsh called ‘Tŷ Jeroboam’. Here are the words – I’m still working on the tune:

Mae popeth yn garlibwns
yn garlibwns, yn garlibwns
Mae popeth yn garlibwns
yn tŷ Jeroboam

Mae popeth yn blith draphlith
yn blith draphlith, yn blith draphlith
Mae popeth yn blith draphlith
yn siop hen siafins

Mae popeth yn siang-di-fang
yn siang-di-fang, yn siang-di-fang
Mae popeth yn siang-di-fang
ar hyd y lle

Mae popeth yn gabwdwl
yn gabwdwl, yn gabwdwl
Mae popeth yn gabwdwl
yn tŷ Jeroboam

Are there interesting ways to talk about confusion in other languages?

By the way, this blog features on a list of the 100 Best Language Learning Blogs and Websites in 2025 compiled by FeedSpot.

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Language quiz

By Simon

Language quiz image

Here’s a recording in a mystery language.

Do you know, or can you guess, the language?

If you need a clue, listen to or read the Omniglot News on Radio Omniglot.

It was a friend’s birthday yesterday and I went to a party at her house. There was live music, nice food and drink, I met some interesting people, and I got to speak various languages – mainly Welsh, French and Mandarin Chinese, and also Cantonese and Irish. There was also a quiz with word-based questions and riddles, and questions about things that happened in the year my friend was born. See how you do with these:

1. Fill in the gaps with the same letters in the same order: A _ _ _ _ _ _ _ surgeon was _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ to perform the operation because there was _ _ / _ _ _ _ _.

2. What has a head, a tail, no legs and is brown?

3. What has 6 faces, but does not wear make up, has 21 eyes, but cannot see?

4. Re-arrange the letters, O O U S W T D N E J R, to spell just one word. What is it?

5. Poor people have it. Rich people need it. If you eat it you die. What is it?

6. How do you spell ‘cow’ in 13 letters? (Hint: it’s not cooooooooooow, as I guessed).

7. Which West African country became independent in February of this year?

8. What was the Intelsat I communications satellite, launched in April of this year, known as?

9. What song did the Rolling Stones release in August of this year?

10. What classic sci-fi show was launched in September of this year in the UK?

Finally, what year was my friend born, and how old is she this year?

These quizzes are normally published every Sunday, and the answers are given the following Saturday here in the comments.

Villainous Sharks

By Simon

In one of the Danish lessons I did recently, I learnt the word skurk, which means villain or baddie, and wondered where it comes from and what other words it’s related to. Let’s find out.

shark

According to Den Danske Ordbog, a skurk [ˈsguɐ̯g] is a person who behaves in an unattractive, dishonest, or malicious manner, or a fictional character in a piece of fiction with the role of the hero’s evil counterpart and enemy or a person or thing that is or is made responsible for trouble or misfortune. In other words, a villain, baddie, wretch, cuplrit, reprobate or rogue [source].

It comes from Low German schurke (villian, scoundrel), from Middle High German schurgen (to shove, push, egg on), possibly from Old High German scuren (to stir, stoke up), from Proto-West-Germanic *skeran (to shear, cut), from Proto-Germanic *skeraną (to shear), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (to cut) [source].

Related words in Danish include skurkagtig (villainous), skurkeagtig (miscreant) and superskurk (super villain).

Related words in other languages include Schurke (villain, scoundrel) in German, skurk (crook, bad guy, rogue, villain) in Swedish, and skurk (crook) in Norwegian [source].

The English shark, as in someone who exploits others by trickery, lies, extortion, etc, also comes from the same roots, as might shark, as in a scaleless, predatory fish of the superorder Selachimorpha [source].

Another English word that possibly comes from the same roots is shirk, as in to avoid responsibility, duty, obligations, etc [source].

Incidentally, before the word shark arrived in English, such fish were known as dogfish or hayes, which comes from Dutch haai (shark, a ruthless or greedy person) or from West Flemish haaie (shark), from Old Norse hái, an abbreviation of hákarl (shark), from hár (shark) and karl (a man). Related words include Hai (shark) in German, haj (shark) in Swedish and Danish, and акула (akula – shark) in Russian, Belarusian, Bulgarian and Ukrainian [source].

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Little Dishes

By Simon

Is the word plateau related to plate, platypus, plaza, pizza, place, flat and fold? Or is one of these words an odd one out? Let’s investigate.

Vercors

Plateau [ˈplætəʊ / plæˈtoʊ] means:

  • A largely level expanse of land at a high elevation; tableland.
  • A comparatively stable level after a period of increase.
  • A notable level of attainment or achievement.
  • To reach a stable level after a period of increase; to level off.

It comes from French plateau (flat area, tray, plateau, stage, (TV) set, chain-ring), from plat (flat, flat area of ground, flat thing, a dish or course) [source] and the diminutive ending -eau, which can also be added to words like éléphant and zèbre to make éléphanteau (a young [male] elephant, calf) and zébreau (young zebra) [source].

Plat comes from Middle French plat (flat), from Old French plat (flat, a footbridge), from Vulgar Latin *plattus (flattened), from Ancient Greek πλατύς (platús – broad, flat), from Proto-Hellenic *plətús, from Proto-Indo-European *pléth₂us (flat, broad), from *pleth₂- (to spread, to extend, flat) [source].

Plate, platypus, plaza, place, flat and fold all probably come from the same roots, as do pit(t)a (bread), piazza, flan, field, plantain, and the name Plato [source].

The odd one out is pizza, which was borrowed from Neapolitan pizza, which comes from Byzantine Greek πίτα (píta – cake, pie), the origins of which are uncertain. Words from the same roots include пита (pita – round loaf, cake, pie, honeycomb) in Bulgarian, pită (bread, sustenance) in Romanian, pite (pie, tart) in Hungarian, and pide (traditional Turkish flatbread, Turkish pizza) in Turkish [source].

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Language Quiz

By Simon

Language quiz image

Here’s a recording in a mystery language.

Do you know, or can you guess, the language?

These quizzes are normally published every Sunday, and the answers are given the following Saturday here in the comments.

If you need a clue, listen to or read the Omniglot News on Radio Omniglot.