Category: Words and phrases

Rumbling Carts

By Simon

The Japanese word 轟々 / ごうごう / ゴーゴー (gōgō) means thundering, roaring, rumbling or booming. The kanji 轟 (gō/kō/todoro) is made up of three carts (車), and is also used as a surname, which is pronounced Kuruma, Gō or Todoroki.

Rumbling Carts 轟轟 (gōgō) - thundering, roaring, rumbling, booming

This kanji also appears in words like:

  • 轟音 (gō’on) = thunderous roar, roaring sound
  • 轟く (todoroku) = to roar, reverberate, be well-known, be famous, palpitate, throb
  • 轟かす (todorosu) = to make a thundering sound, to make (one’s name, etc.) widely known, to make (one’s heart) pound
  • 轟然 (gōzen) = roaring, thundering, thunderous, deafening, ear-splitting
  • 轟き (todoroki) = roar, peal, rumble, booming, beating, pounding

In Mandarin Chinese the character 轰 [轟] is pronounced hōng and means explosion, bang, boom, rumble, to attack, shoo away, expel.

It appears in words like:

  • 轰动的成就 [轟動的成就] (hōngdòng de chéngjiù) = a howling success
  • 轰动全世界 [轟動全世界] (hōngdòng quánshìjiè) = to set the world on fire
  • 轰隆 [轟隆] (hōnglōng ) = to rumble
  • 轰轰烈烈 [轟轟烈烈] (hōnghōnglièliè) = vigorously, grand and spectacular, fiery
  • 轰赶 [轟趕] (hōnggǎn) = to drive off, shoo away

I like these compound characters that are made up of several duplicated characters. Other examples include

  • 林 (hayashi – wood, forest), and 森 (mori – forest) which are made up of several 木 (ki – tree, shrub, bush, wood, timber). Put them together and we get 森林 (shinrin – forest, woods).
  • 炎 (honō – flame, blaze, passion), which are made up of two 火 (hi – fire)
  • 品 (hin – elegance, grace, article, item), which are made up of several 口 (kuchi – mouth)
  • 龖 (tà – flight of a dragon), 龘 (tà – the appearance of a dragon walking) and 𪚥 (zhé – verbose) which are made up of several 龍 [龙] (lóng – dragon).

The dragon examples are rare and in Mandarin, the rest are in Japanese.

Sources: jisho.org, mdbg.net, Line Dict CHINESE-ENGLISH

Kiki

By Simon

Have you ever been to a kiki? If you live in Florida or Hawaii, maybe you have. The rest of us, probably not.

According to a post on Crossword Solver about slang words in the USA, kiki is the most popular slang word among members of Gen-Z (those born between about 1997 and 2012) in Florida or Hawaii.

Gen-Z slang

The Urban Dictionary defines kiki as:

A party including good music and good friends, held for the express purpose of calming nerves, reducing anxiety and stress and generally fighting ennui. May involve locked doors, tea and salacious gossip.

Sounds like fun! More details about the origin of this word.

Another slang word popular with Gen-Z that I’ve never heard of is finna, which apparently is an abbreviation of “fixing to” and means “going to” or “about to or in the process of doing something”. For example “I’m finna go da’ sto” (I’m going to go to the store) [source]. More details about the origin of this word.

Then there’s poggers, which is apparently popular in California and Iowa and means:

A twitch emote typically used to express enthusiasm, enthrawlment or other sophisticated emotions of happiness and dopamine.

Other definitions include: “a word to describe excitement, joy, or to hype”, “A word to describe something as good” and “something/someone that you find absolutely amazing” [source]. The related word pog is apparently “used as an exclamation of approval, especially in video game chat” and means “excellent, cool, awesome” [source].

An emote is “A term used in MMORPG’s such as World of Warcraft which describes an action your character can perform which is usually accompanied by sound and sometimes even an animation”. Examples include /poke, /cheer, /moo and /insult [source].

Have you heard/read any of these words? Do you use any of them?

Falling Apples

By Simon

A friend asked me to look into the origins of the saying An acorn doesn’t fall far from the tree. I can only find a few examples of this saying online, but lots of examples of the apple never falls far from the tree and similar sayings. It refers to the idea that people inevitably share traits with or resemble their parents or family.

Apple Tree

According to The Phrase Finder, the origins of this saying are uncertain. The earliest known example of its use in English appears in 1830 in Benjamin Thorpe’s translation of Rasmus Rask’s Grammar of the Anglo-Saxon Tongue:

Traces still exist in the daily language of the Icelanders, for instance in the proverb, eplit fellr ekki lánt frá eikinni the apple falls not far from the tree (the oak!).

In a letter by Ralph Waldo Emerson published in 1839, he quotes the German proverb ‘der Apfel fällt nicht weit von Stamm’ – “As men say the apple never falls far from the stem.”

In 1843, The Bible in Spain by George Henry Borrow includes the line:

“The apple”, as the Danes say, “had not fallen far from the tree;” the imp was in every respect the counterpart of the father, though in miniature.

According to English Language & Usage, a Welsh version of this saying appears in A Dictionary of the Welsh Language, Explained in English:

Ni fell zygwyz aval o avall
The apple will not fall far from the tree

The spelling here is unusal and non-standard: z = dd and v = f, so in modern standard spelling it would be “Ni fell ddygwydd afal o afall”, I think.

There are also versions of this saying from Turkish – Iemisch agatsdan irak dushmas (The apple does not fall far from the tree), and Old English – Se æppel næfre þæs feorr ne trenddeð he cyð hwanon he com. (The apple never rolls so far that it does not make known whence it came.)

子狐

I also found an idiom with a similar meaning in Japanese: 狐の子は頬白 (kitsune no ko wa tsurajiro), which means “fox cubs have white cheeks” [source].

Do you know of examples of this saying in other languages?

Ietsiepietsie

By Simon

I learnt a cute Dutch word today – ietsiepietsie. It means a little, a little bit, teeny tiny or a teeny tiny bit, and is also written ietsie pietsie, ietsje pietsje or ietsjepietsje [source].

Itsy Bitsy Katydid

You could also translate it as itsy-bitsy, itty-bitty or teensy weensy Do you know any similar expressions in English or other languages.

It is a reduplication* of ietsje (somewhat, a little bit), a diminutive version of iets [its] (something, anything), which comes from the Middle Dutch iet (something, anything, to any degree, a little, somewhat, sometimes, perhaps), a contraction of iewet, from the Old Dutch *iowiht, from the Proto-Germanic *ne (not) plus io (ever) plus *wiht, from *wihtą (thing) [source].

*Reduplication is “a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word (or part of it) or even the whole word is repeated exactly or with a slight change.” They’re not very common in Dutch. Other examples include taaitaai (gingerbread), tamtam (fanfare, grapevine) and bla-bla (blah-blah, talk) [source].

They’re more common in English. Examples include easy-peasy, hoity-toity, hurdy-gurdy, raggle-taggle, tut-tut, chit-chat and knick-knack [source].

Musical Fun

By Simon

The Japanese word 曲 (kyoku) means a composition, piece of music, song, track (on a record), a tune, melody or air, or enjoyment, fun, interest or pleasure. Which is quite appropriate as music is enjoyable and fun for many people. It also often appears in the comments of the videos I watch that feature Japanese bands [source].

Lovebites 2019

The same kanji when pronounced kuse means wrong, improper or indecent, or a long segment of a noh play forming its musical highlight​. In the verb 曲がる (magaru) it means to bend, curve, warp, wind, twist, turn, be crooked and various other things, and as 曲げる (mageru) it means to bend, crook, bow, curve, curl, lean, tilt, yield and various other things.

曲 also appears in words like:

  • 曲線 (kyokusen) = curve
  • 曲がり角 (magarikado) = street corner, bend in the road, turning point, watershed
  • 曲目 (kyokumoku) = name of a piece of music, (musical) number, (musical) program(me), list of songs
  • 曲がりくねる (magrikuneru) = to bend many times, twist and turn, zigzag
  • 曲芸 (kyokugei) = acrobatics
  • 曲がりなりにも (magari nimo) = though imperfect, somehow (or other)
  • 曲面 (kyokumen) = curved surface

曲目 (kyokumoku) sounds really nice to me, and something I struggle with is remembering the names of pieces of music. I can play quite a lot of tunes, but only know the names of some of them. I even forget the names of tunes I have written myself.

Here’s a little tune I wrote the other day called The Tower of Cats / Tŵr y Cathod.

In Chinese the character 曲 has several meanings: when pronounced qū it means bent, bend, crooked or wrong, and can also be a surname. When pronounced qǔ it means tune or song [source].

It appears in such words as:

  • 曲子 (qǔzi) = tune
  • 曲调 [曲调] (qǔdiào) = melody
  • 曲折 (qūzhé) = winding, complicated
  • 曲直 (qūzhí) = right and wrong
  • 曲线 [曲線] (qūxiàn) = curve, curved line, indirect
  • 曲解 (qūjiě) = to distort
  • 曲别针 [曲別針] (qūbiézhēn) = paper clip

Sources: Line Dict CHINESE-ENGLISH, mdbg.com

By the way, the band featured in the photo is Lovebites, a Japanese metal band who I really like.

This is their most recent video:

Gossipy Cancans

By Simon

The cancan is a “high-kicking chorus line dance originating in France”, and also a “a trick [in motocross] where one leg is brought over the seat, so that both legs are on one side.” [source].

cancan

Accorrding to the English version of Wiktionary, it comes from the French cancan [kɑ̃.kɑ̃], which refers to the dance, and also means gossip.

Apparently there was a disbute at the Collège de France in around 1550 about the pronunciation of the Latin word quamquam – some scholars favoured the reconstructed Latin prononuciation of [ˈkʷam.kʷã(m)], while others preferred the French Latin pronunciation of [kɑ̃.kɑ̃]. Since then, cancan has referred to “any kind of scandalous performance”.

Accorrding to the French version of Wiktionary however, cancan (gossip) originally meant a loud noise about something, and comes from quanquan (noise, brilliance for a trifle, a narrative full of slander, an indiscreet report), from the Latin quamquam (although, while), from quam (in what way, how, as much as).

Alternatively, cancan might come from the Arabic كانكان (kan kan), which means futile talk.

The cancan, as in the dance, comes from a children’s name for canard (duck), and is onomatopoeic inspired by the quacking of ducks and evocative of their waddling.

Related words in French include cancaner (to gossip (maliciously), to quack), cancaneuse (a gossip), and cancanier (gossiping, gossip, gossipy).

Incidentally, the word gossip comes from the Middle English godsybbe/godsib (a close friend or relation, a confidant, a godparent), from the Old English godsibb (godparent, sponsor), from god (god) and sibb (relationship, peace) [source].

Dampeners

By Simon

On Tuesday night I was at my usual Welsh folk music session having a nice time, then unfortunately a guy fell over and banged his head – he was a bit unsteady on his feet, and had drunk quite a bit. He was okay and has apparently recovered now, but it put a bit of a dampener on the evening.

A dampener is a device that moistens or dampens something, or a discouraging event or remark. Synonyms include buzzkill, killjoy and spoilsport. Do you have any others?

killjoys

It comes from the Middle English dampen (to stifle, suffocate), from the Proto-Germanic *dampaz (vapour), from *dimbaną (to fog, smoke) [source].

Last night when talking about this incident in French, I learnt the phrase gâcher qch, which means to to a dampener/damper on something. Gâcher on its own means to spoil, ruin, muck up, bungle, waste, squander (chances), temper (plaster) or mix (mortar). It appears in phrases like gâcher le paysage (to be a blot of the landscape) and gâcher (to kill a party [source].

Gâcher comes from the Old French gaschier (to spol, spoil, waste), from guaschier/waschier (to wash, soak), from the Frankish *waskan (to wash, bathe), from the Proto-Germanic *waskaną (to wash), from the Proto-Indo-European *wod- (wet) [source].

Words from the same roots include wash in English, wassen (to wash, clean) in Dutch, guazzàre (to wallow) in Italian, and vaske (to wash, shampoo, launder, shuffle) in Danish [source].

Hooks

By Simon

An interesting French I learnt yesterday was hameçonnage, which means phishing or a phishing scam – that is “The malicious act of keeping a false website or sending a false e-mail with the intent of masquerading as a trustworthy entity in order to acquire sensitive information, such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details.” or “The act of circumventing security with an alias.” [source].

rebar hook

It comes from hameçonner (to attract and seduce by a deceptive appearance, to phish), from hameçon (fishhook), from the Old French ameçon, from the Latin hāmus (hook, barb), possibly from the Proto-Germanic *hamô (clothes, skirt, fishnet, harness, collar) [source].

The word hameçon also appears in the expression mordre à l’hameçon, which means to take the bait or rise to the bait, or literally “to bite the hook” [source].

Another word for a scam, swindle or fraud in French is escroquerie, and a phishing scam is escroquerie par hameçonnage [source].

Escroquerie comes from escroquer (to swindle, cheat, defraud), from the Italian scroccare (to scrounge, sponge, cadge, blag) from scrocco (scrounging, sponging), from the Old High German *scurgo, from scurgen (to knock over, push aside), from or related to the Proto-Germanic *skeran (to cut, shear), from the Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (to cut) [source].

The English word shear comes from the same roots, as does the French word déchirer (to tear, rip up) [source].

Kenchiku

By Simon

A Japanese word I learnt recently is 建築 (kenchiku), which means architecture or construction and just appeals to my ears.

旧済生館本館

Related words include:

  • 建築家 (kenchikuka) = architect
  • 建築学 (kenchikugaku) = architecture
  • 建築物 (kenchikubutsu) = building, structure
  • 建築中 (kenchikuchū) = building, structure
  • 建築業 (kenchikugyō) = building/construction industry
  • 建築業者 (kenchikugyōsha) = builder, constructor

The charcter 建 means to build, and also appears in such words as 建物 (tatemono – building), 建設 (kensetsu – construction, establishment), and 建てる (tateru – to build).

The charcter 築 means to fabricate, build or construct, and also appears in such words as 築く (kizuku – to build, construct, erect, amass), 築山 (tsukiyama – artificial hill), and 築後 (chikutē – landscape gardening).

Source: jisho.org

Over the past week or so there has been some building work going on in my house, so it’s been a bit chaotic. The central heating system has now been replaced and I finally have a warm house, which is very nice. It’s all running on electricity (before I had a gas boiler) and is powered partly by my solar panels. Next I’m having a small bathroom installed downstairs, and the kitchen roof needs replacing.

Are there any words you’ve come across recently that appeal to your ears?

Half a Story

By Simon

A way to say excuse me in Irish is gabh mo leithscéal, which is pronounced [ˌɡɔ mə ˈlʲɪʃceːl̪ˠ] or something like that. If you’re talking to two or more people, you would say gabhaigí mo leithscéal. There are similar phrases in Scottish Gaelic – gabh mo leisgeul, and Manx – gow my leshtal. These mean literally “take my excuse”.

Gabh mo leithscéal (take my half story

The first word in these phrases comes from the Old Irish gaibid [ˈɡavʲiðʲ] (to grasp or receive), from the Proto-Celtic *gabyeti (to grab, seize, take or hold), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰeh₁bʰ- (to grab or take) [source].

Related words in other languages include gafael (to hold, grasp, grip) in Welsh, gavel (capacity, grasp) in Cornish, gable in English, and words for to have in Romance languages, such as avere in Italian and avoir in French [source].

The second word in these phrases means my, and the third one means excuse. The words for excuse come from the Old Irish leithscél / leithsgéal / leithsgéul (excuse), from leth (half, side, direction) and scél (story), so an excuse is a “half story” [source].

A related word in Irish is leithscéalach (fond of excuses, apologetic). There’s a similar word in Scottish Gaelic: leisgeulach (excusing, apologetic) and in Manx: leshtallagh (apologetic, apologist, excuser, extenuating).