Category: Etymology

Playing and sounding

By Simon

The other day I discovered that to play in Italian is giocare or divertirsi, but if you’re playing a musical instruments the word you need is suonare, which also means to ring, sound, strike or toot. So I can say, Suono la chitarra, il piano(forte), il mandolino, il flauto dolce e il fischietto. (I play the guitar, piano, mandolin, recorder and tin whistle.)

You can also use this verb to talk about striking clocks: l’orologio ha suonato le cinque (the clock struck five) and ringing phones: sta suonando il telefono (the phone is ringing). Also to talk about metaphorical sounds: Potrà suonare avventato, da un lato troppo aggressivo e dall’altro troppo ottimistico. (That may sound presumptuous, too aggressive for some, too optimistic for others.)

Related expressions include:

– fare suonare = to misuse, to over-use, to abuse
– suonare a morto = to knell
– suonare come ritornello = to reprise
– suonare per strada = to busk

In English you use play for both playing instruments and playing games, you can also play around while playing an instrument – how would you say that in Italian, or in other languages?

Welsh has chwarae as the general word for play and canu (to sing) for playing instruments, especially harps, though chwarae is also used for instruments.

In Mandarin there is 玩 (wán) for general play, while the words for playing instruments depend on the type of instrument: 拉 (lā), to pull, is used for bowed instruments such as violins and cellos; 吹 (chuī), to blow, is used for wind instruments; 弹 [彈] (tán), to pluck, is used for string instruments like guitars; 打 (dǎ), to beat/strike, is used for percussion instruments, and 演奏 (yǎnzòu) is a general word for playing an instrument or performing.

Do other languages has separate words for playing instruments and playing games?

Sources: Collins Italian Dictionary, bab.la dictionary

Klinken

By Simon

Klok / Bel (bell)

Last week I learnt an interesting Dutch word – klinken – which means to rivet, sound, ring, chime, toll, peal, knell, pledge, clink (glasses), (drink a) toast; to appear to be, seem, sound; and clinking. I particularly like the past tense forms of this word – klonk and geklonken.

Here are some examples of usage:

– die naam klinkt me bekend (in die oren) = that name sounds familiar to me
– dat klinkt mooi = that sounds nice
– het klonk me als muziek in de oren = it was music to my ears
– Waar hebben die woorden eerder geklonken? = Where have I heard those words before?

Here are some similar words and expressions:

– klink = (door)handle; latch
– klinker = brick; vowel
– medeklinker = consonant (also consonant)
– klinken op = to drink a toast to; to drink to; to toast
– laten klinken = to sound
– vals klinken (“to sound false”) = to jangle; to be off/out of key; to be/sound out of tune
– geklingel = jingle
– klingelen = to jingle; tinkle (also tingelen, rinkelen & kletteren)

The word vals in vals klinken can be translated as ‘false’, but also means mischievous, vicious, nasty, malicious and spurious. It can also be combined with spelen (to play) to make vals spelen – to cheat.

The English word clink possibly comes from klinken, and the clink, as a slang word for prison, comes from the prison in Southwark in London called The Clink, the name of which is possibly onomatopoeic and derives from the sound of metal doors being closed, or the rattling of the prisoners’ chains. The English words clonk and clunk are thought to be onomatopoeic in origin, while the word clank might come from the Dutch word klank, which means sound or tone.

What sounds do bells make in other languages?

Sources: bab.la Dictionary, vanDale, dictionary.sensagent.com, SYSTRANet, interglot.com, OED.

Buiten

By Simon

Tthe Dutch word buiten /ˈbœy̯.tə(n)/ is one I’ve heard quite a bit while listening to Dutch radio, and though I know what it means – outside; out of – I wasn’t sure where it came from. Today I discover that it is related to uit (out, from).

Buiten also means: villa, abroad, forth, apart from, besides, outdoors, except for, but, except, other than, peripheral, external, outer – so it’s quite a useful word.

Related words and expressions include:

– buiten adem = breathless
– buiten kennis/westen = unconscious
– buiten werking = out of order
– van buiten = by heart
– buitenkant = periphery, outskirts, surface, exterior
– buitenland = foreign country
– buitenspel = offside (football); sidelined
– buitenshuis = outdoors
– uitbuiten = to exploit, utilize, rack, vamp

One thing I like about Dutch is that many compound words are made up of native roots, which makes them easy to understand, as long as you know the meanings of the individual components. There are some loan words from other languages, such as French and English, but far fewer than in English, which has layers and layers of vocabulary from different languages (Anglo-Saxon, Norman, French, Latin, Greek, Old Norse, Dutch, etc).

For example, the relationship between hydrogen and water is not obvious in English, unless you know that hydrogen comes from the Ancient Greek ὕδωρ (hudōr – water) and γεννάω (gennaō – “I bring forth”). Hydrogen entered English via the French hydrogène, a term coined by Louis-Bernard Guyton de Morveau [source]. Whereas in Dutch hydrogen is waterstof (“water stuff”). Another water-related word in English is aquatic, which comes from Latin – in Dutch this is either aquatisch or waterhoudend / waterig, (houdend = having, keeping).

Wirlie

By Simon

In a book I read recently (one of Alexander McCall Smith’s 44 Scotland Street series) I came across a number of Scots words that were unfamiliar to me. One that I particularly like is wirlie, which, according the Dictionary of the Scots Language (DSL), means:

“a place where a field-wall crosses a stream; an opening in a wall to let running water pass through”.

An interesting meaning that I would never have guessed from the word or the context. It is apparently a Shetland word which comes from the Old Norse árhilð (á = river, hlið = an opening or gap in a fence), according to Shetland Words – A dictionary of the Shetland dialect.

If you came across this word, without knowing the above, what would you think it meant?

In some contexts it might be a euphemism for being drunk or confused – he was a bit wirlie.

Are there similar words in any other languages?

Dirks, Saxons and Messers

By Simon

Dirk / sgian-dubh in sock

I discovered today that dolch is the German equivalent of dirk, the dagger that is worn in the sock in Scottish Highland dress (see photo). The dirk is known as a sgian dubh (black knife or secret knife) in Scottish Gaelic, and the word dirk, which first appeared in English as dork in the 17th century, possibly comes from the German word dolch (dagger) or dolk, which is found in Dutch, Danish and Swedish [source].

Another German word for knife is Messer, which comes from the Old High German mezzeres/mezzirahs/mezzisahs (knife), from the Proto-Germanic *matisahsą (knife), from *matiz (food) and *sahsą (knife, dagger). Messer is cognate with the Old Saxon metisahs/mezas (knife), the West Frisian mês, the Dutch mes (knife), and the Old English word meteseax (knife). [source].

The Old English word seax (knife, short sword, dagger), which appears in meteseax, shares the same root – the Proto-Indo-European *sek- (to cut) – with the Middle English sax (knife); the Danish and Swedish word sax (a pair of scissors), the Icelandic sax (a short heavy sword), and the Latin word secō (cut), as well as the English words Saxon and saw [source].

The English word mess (in the military sense of a dining hall or people who eat together) comes from a different root – from the Latin mittere (to put, place) via the Old French mets (food) [source].

Lucky and inspiring veins

By Simon

I discovered yesterday that one way to say that someone is lucky in French is to say that they avoir de la veine (‘have of the vein’). I’m not sure why veins are associated with luck. Does anybody know.

Veine also means seam and inspiration.

Other expressions featuring veine and related words include:

– veiné = veined
– dans la même veine = in the same vein
– veine dramatique = dramatic inspiration
– veine poétique = poetic inspiration
– veine porte = portal vein
– veine poétique = poetic inspiration
– veine de cocu / veine de pendu = great deal of luck
– veine d’air = current of air
– veinard {n} = lucky beggar/dog
– veinard {adj} = fluky; jammy
– Sacré veinard ! = You jammy bugger!

Are there equivalents of veinard in other languages?

Suns, moons and sputniks

By Simon

The Sun / Солнце

Earlier today I was thinking about how I might learn more Russian, and realised that I need to get to grips with the grammar – the verb conjugations, noun declensions and so on. Trying to memorise verb tables and noun declensions and other grammatical gubbins doesn’t appeal to me, so I thought about other ways I might approach this. I thought that one reason why I haven’t learnt these things very well so far, even though I’m halfway through the Russian course, is because I haven’t made a conscious effort to do so, and haven’t practised using them nearly enough. I think I need lots more examples of how they’re used then my course supplies, and need lots of practise using them.

I thought that one possible approach would be to choose a word or topic, then try and make sense of the Wikipedia page about it, with help from Google translate, which not only translates the text into English, but also has transliteration and text-to-speech functions, so I can listen and read the text. So today’s word is the sun, which in Russian is Солнце [‘solntse]. I can only understand some of the words on the Russian page about the sun on Wikipedia, but one that stood out for me was спутники [‘sputniki], which means satellites or moons and is familiar because it’s similar to the name of the the first artificial satellite, Спутник-1 (Sputnik-1), which was launched in 1957. I knew this name, but didn’t know what it meant, until now.

The word sputnik also means ‘fellow traveller’ or ‘travelling companion’ and was short for спутник Земли (sputnik zemlyi – ‘traveling companion of the Earth’). It comes from the Russian с (with, together) and пут (path, way), from the Old Church Slavonic poti, from the Proto-Indo-European root *pent- (to tread/go; path, road), according to the Online Etymology Dictionary. *pent- is also the root of the English word find and the Latin pōns/pontis (bridge).

I had no idea I’d find all that out when I started writing this post. I haven’t learned much Russian, but I have learned other things.

Bosky bosses

By Simon

A bosky part of Roman Camp in Bangor

I discovered today that bos is a Dutch word for forest or wood, and this immediately made me think of the wonderful English word bosky, which is defined by the OED as “Consisting of or covered with bushes or underwood; full of thickets, bushy”.

The OED says that bosky comes from bosk, a Middle English version of bush, which like the Dutch words bos and bosje (bush), comes from the late Latin boscum / boscus (wood).

A similar-sounding English word, boss, is not related to bosky, but does come from Dutch – from baas (boss, owner), from the Middle Dutch baes, which originally meant uncle, and was first used to mean master in America during the 17th century [source].

Sun dogs, billygoat’s eyes and halos

By Simon

A photo of a sun dogs or parhelion by the sun - from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Fargo_Sundogs_2_18_09.jpg

The other day I discovered the wonderful word sun dog, which refers to coloured patches of light that appear beside the sun at certain times, particularly when the sun is low in the sky. The scientific name for this phenomenon is a parhelion, from the παρήλιον (parēlion – beside the sun); from παρά (para – beside), and ἥλιος (helios – sun) [source].

In French sun dogs are known as parhélie, faux soleil (“fake sun”), soleil double (“double sun”), œil de bouc (“billygoat’s eye) or chien du soleil (“sun dog). In other languages their names are mainly based on the Greek, or some variation on fake sun.

There are also such things as moon dogs, mock moons or paraselenes, which are patches of light that appear beside the moon, though they are rarer than sun dogs, difficult to see, and only appear when the moon is very bright and full or nearly full. [source].

The friend who told me about sun dogs was using it to describe a halo around the moon or lunar halo, which, like sun and moon dogs, is a result of the refraction of light through ice crystal in cirrostratus clouds high in the upper troposphere [source]. On the night when we were talking about sun dogs the moon was only half full, so I don’t think there were any moon dogs about, but there definitely was a halo around the moon.

Snails and corner shops

By Simon

I have been learning Dutch for just over a week now and am enjoying it and finding it interesting. I can guess the meanings of many of the words I encounter as they are similar to German and/or English, but some are completely different. For example, I just learnt that shop is (de) winkel /ˈʋɪŋkəl/, and that shopping is (het) winkelen, which have no similarities to shop or shopping in English, or to their equivalents in German – Geschäft/Laden and einkaufen.

According to Wiktionary, winkel meant corner in Middle Dutch and Old Dutch, and comes from the Proto-Germanic word *winkilaz (corner, nook), from the Proto-Indo-European *weng- (to bend, bow, arch, curve) [source].

Winkel is apparently cognate with German Winkel (corner), and the Old English wincel (nook, corner), which is found in the word periwinkle (a type of sea snail). The use of winkel for shop is apparently derived from the meaning “corner in which merchandise is stalled”.

Related words include:

  • ijzerwinkel, ijzerwarenwinkel = hardware store (“iron (wares) shop”)
  • platenwinkel = record shop/store
  • webwinkel = online shop/store
  • winkelen = to shop; to go shopping – also boodschappen; het boodschappen doen
  • winkelcentrum = shopping centre / mall
  • winkelwagen = shopping trolley / cart
  • winkeltas = shopping bag
  • winkelassistent = shop assistant, personal shopper, sales clerk
  • winkelier = shopkeeper, storekeeper, retailer

– winkelhaak = try square; carpenter’s square