Category: Words and phrases

Word of the day – cnatan

By Simon

cnatan, noun = cold

Tha’n cnatan orm = I have a cold (lit. “Is the cold on me”)
Tha an cnatan a’ tighinn orm = I’m getting a cold (lit. “Is the cold a coming on me”)

Another way to say I have a cold, which I do at moment, which is why I chose this word, is tha fuachd agam (lit. “Is coldness with me”).

The equivalent phrases in the other Celtic languages I know are:

Irish Gaelic: Tá slaghdán orm
Manx Gaelic: Ta feayraght orrym
Welsh: Mae annwyd arna i

All these mean, literally, “Is cold on me”

These phrases illustate some interesting aspects shared by the Celtic languages, such as the verb-first word order, and the way of showing possession. You don’t ‘have’ something in these languages, instead something is on you or with you.

They also give an example of how personal pronouns combine with prepositions. For example, orm (on me) is a combination of air (on) + mi (I/me). If you wanted to say “He has a cold”, it would be “Tha’n cnatan air”, and “We have colds” would be “Tha’n cnatan oirnn”.

Word of the day – proboscitude

By Simon

elephant

proboscitude, adjective = the condition of having a long flexible prehensile trunk.

From proboscis, noun = a long flexible prehensile trunk or snount, as of an elephant; the elongated mouthparts of cetain insects, adapted for piercing and sucking food

Origin: via Latin from Greek προβοσκις (proboskis) – trunk of an elephant, from βοσκειν (boskein) – to feed

I’ve just started reading “The Ancestor’s Tale – A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution” by Richard Dawkins. In the introduction he explains why he has chosen to tell the story of evolution starting with humans and working backwards: he says it’s natural for a human to do it this way. If an elephant was telling the tale, he or she would most likely start with elephants then look for their ancestors “on the main trunk road of evolution”. He goes on to speculate that:

“Elephant astronomers might wonder whether, on some other world, there exist alien life forms that have crossed the nasal rubicon and taken the final leap to full proboscitude.”

Proboscitude is such a wonderful word that I thought I’d share it with you.

Other English words for nose are also interesting, and include conk, hooter, schozzle and snout.

“To be nosey” or “to stick one’s nose where it doesn’t belong” are both used to describe unwelcome curiosity in the doings of others. Do the equivalent idioms in other languages involve noses? If not, are there any nose-related idioms that mean something else?

Word of the day – benutzen

By Simon

benutzen/benützen, verb = to consult, to make use of, to take advantage of

Example of usage: etwas als Vorwand benutzen = to use something as an excuse

Related words:
benutzbar = usable, passable (road)
Benutzer = user, borrower
benutzung= use
Benutzungsgebühr = charge, hire charge

This word caught my eye today while I was editing a German version of a website. It’s perhaps more nützlich (useful) than yesterday’s word.

Word of the day – 龜

By Simon

龜 (guī) , noun = tortoise, turtle

This is my favorite Chinese character and one of the few that sort of resembles the word it represents. At the top you have the head, then the two bits sticking out on the left are the claws, the shell is on the right and at the bottom is the tail. If I hadn’t told you this though, I doubt if you would have guessed the meaning of this character.

The turtle is a symbol of longevity, strength, stability and prophecy in Chinese culture. The idea that the world is supported by a giant turtle appears in stories in many cultures.

By the way, in case you’re wondering, the Chinese character at the top of this page means character, letter or word and is pronounced zì in Mandarin Chinese, ji in Japanese and ja in Korean.

Word of the day – подбородок

By Simon

подбородок (podborodok), noun = chin

For the past three months I’ve been learning Russian with Rosetta Stone. I study one lesson a week and spend about half an hour to an hour a day on it. This week’s lesson is about parts of the body and I really like the sound of the word for chin in Russian.

Rosetta Stone courses come a CD-ROM and are designed to teach you entirely through the medium of the language you’re studying. As far as I can tell, all Rosetta Stone courses have the same format – you start learning individual words, such man, woman, boy girl, dog, elephant, etc. Then you learn how to combine them to together in increasingly complex phrases and sentences. The idea is that you’re supposed to pick up the pronunciation and grammar as you go along. In the case of the Russian course, it doesn’t teach you the Cyrillic alphabet, so it’s a good thing I already knew it before starting the course.

Each lesson consists of a series of exercises that drill you in listening, reading, speaking and writing. You can go through the lessons at your own pace, let the program take you through them, or test yourself.

Level 1 of these courses includes 92 lessons, Level 2 has 118. I have Levels 1 & 2 of the Russian course, so if I continue studying at the rate of one lesson a week it will take me over four years to complete the course. By 2010 I should be fluent in Russian then!

One frustating thing I’m finding with this course is that it has yet to teach me any useful everyday phrase – things like “hello”, “how are you?”, “good bye”, etc. It is giving me a thorough grounding in the basic vocabulary though.

Has anybody managed to complete a Rosetta Stone course? Are you now fluent in the language you used it to study? What did you think of the course?

You can find more information about Rosetta Stone courses at: www.rosettastone.com

Word of the day – bleachtaire

By Simon

bleachtaire, noun = detective
bleachtaireacht, noun = detecting
úrscéal bleachtaireachta = detective novel

Is maith liom fuaim an fhocal seo, agus sin é an fáth a phioc mé é. Ina theannta sin, faoi láthair táim ag léamh úrscéal bleachtaireachta don fhoghlaimeoir fásta, Triblóid le Colmán Ó Drisceoil.

I chose this word because I just like the sound of it, and also because I’m reading a detective novel in Irish at the moment: Triblóid by Colmán Ó Drisceoil. It’s a short novel written especially for learners of Irish.