Fantoosh puppets

I came across the interesting Scots word fantoosh [fan’tuʃ], which is defined by the Online Scots Dictionary as “flashy, ultra-fashionable”, whicle the Dictionary of the Scots Language gives a more detailed definition: “1. Over-dressed, over-ornamented; flashy, showy; ultra-fashionable; and 2. An over-dressed person”.

Related words include fantoosherie (fuss, pretentiousness, swank) and fantooshed (flashily dressed).

This word was apparently coined during the First World War and was influenced by the English dialect word fanty-sheeny (a marionette, showy, fanciful), which comes from the Italian fantoccino (puppet), or from the French fantoche (puppet), or maybe fantoosh comes directly from the French.

According to the Caledonian Mercury, fantoosh is more often used for women than, and is also used for other things, such as clothes, hats, wedding cakes, and it usually carries with it hints of criticism or disapproval.

Are there similar words in other languages?

Les mots de la semaine

français English Cymraeg Brezhoneg
la cabine de plage beach hut cwt/caban glan môr logell aod (?)
le petit nom d’amitié; diminutif pet name enw anwes bihanaat
le terme d’affection term of endearment gair anwes
les paroles tendres endearments geiriau tyner
le sol; la terre soil pridd douar
le banc (d’église) (church) pew côr; sedd; sêt plas

The apple of one’s eye(ball)

The other day I came across the Dutch word oog [oːx], which means ‘spot; hole; period (of time); eye’ – I was looking for the equivalent of eye when I found it. Words like this with double o just appeal to me for some reason and I have to keep reminding myself that they the oo is not pronounced /uː/, as you might expect in English.

Other words in Dutch with double o include:

– ook = too, also, likewise, which always reminds me of how the librarian speaks in Terry Practhett’s Discworld stories (oook, eeek!)
– ooftboom = fruit tree
– ooi = ewe
– oom = uncle
– oor = handle; ear
– oord = place; spot
– oost = east

Eye-related words and expressions include:

– ogen = to look
– oogappel = eyeball (‘eye apple’)
– oogarts = ophtalmologist; oculist (‘eye doctor’)
– oog in oog = face to face (‘eye in eye’)
– in het oog krijgen = to perceive, to descry (‘to get in the eye’)
– in het oog springen = to catch the eye, to stand out (‘to spring/jump in the eye’)
– in het oog vallend = striking (‘falling in the eye’)
– met het oog op = considering (‘with the eye up/on’)
– uit het oog verliezen = to lose out of sight (‘to lose out of the eye’)

Source: bab.la Dictionary

Suns, moons and sputniks

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.

Les mots de la semaine

français English Cymraeg Brezhoneg
nain dwarf corrach korr; korrigan
les préparatifs (mpl); le dispositions (fpl) arrangements trefniadau; paratoadau darbaroù; danvezidigezh
prendre des dispositions to make arrangements trefnu; paratoi aozañ; brientiñ
se mettre d’accord; parvenir à un arrangement to come to an arrangement dod i gytundeb/ddealltwriaeth (â rhywun) glevet e yezh all
prendre des dispositions nécessaires pour faire qch to make an arrangement to do sth trefnu i wneud rhywbeth
la composition florale flower arrangement trefniad blodau bokederezh
la betterave beetroot betysen (goch); bitrwden beterabez
rouge comme une tomate red as a beetroot cyn goched â gwaed

La Saint-Sylvestre

As today is New Year’s Eve I thought I’d look at what this day is called in various languages:

French:la (fête de) Saint-Sylvestre, which is celebrated with le Réveillon de Saint-Sylvestre, a feast which well involve champagne and foie gras, and a party, with kisses under the mistletoe at midnight. Saint Sylvestre was Pope between 314 to 335 AD and his feast day happens to be on 31st December. [source].

German: Silvester or Silvesterabend, which is celebrated with parties and fireworks, and/or by watching the 1920s British film Dinner for One [sources].

Spanish: la Noche Vieja, which is celebrated with parties and by eating 12 grapes for each of the 12 chimes of midnight [source].

Welsh: Nos Galan (“night of the calend”), which is celebrated with parties and fireworks, and there’s a tradition of giving gifts and money, or these days bread and cheese on New Year’s Day [source].

There are more details of New Year traditions on Wikipedia.

How do you celebrate new year?

Happy New Year, by the way.

Babbling and motherese

Over the past few days I’ve been observing, and to some extent participating, in my niece’s language acquisition. She is 8 months old and babbles a lot to herself and to others. Some of her babbling can sound like possible words, like dada, but they don’t seem to be associated with anything yet. She is also starting to direct her attention at various things, and especially at people, who she charms with her smiles.

From her mother (my sister-in-law) she is getting mainly Russian, and from her father (my brother) she is getting English. When I first heard her mother talking to her in Russian I didn’t understand much, but when I listened more closely I realised that the same phrases where coming up frequently – as with motherese or Child Directed Speech generally. Two phrases I understood where Что ты хочешь? (What do you want?) and Всё (all, everything). There are also a lot of terms of affection, which in Russian are often diminutives like котёнок (kitten).

I found more examples of Russian motherese on: http://www.russianforfree.com/adoptive-parents.php.

Всё seems to be quite a useful word which appears in various phrsaes:

– вот и всё, это всё = that’s all
– чаще всего = most often
– мне всё равно = it’s all the same to me
– всё там же = still there
– всё же = all the same
– всё ещё = still
– а всё-таки = all the same, nevertheless

Les mots de la semaine

français English Cymraeg Brezhoneg
un salon (canapé et deux fauteuils) three-piece suite set dridarn; swît dridarn
sous les auspices de under the umbrella of dan nawdd/gysgod/adain
arnaque; escroquerie rip off twyll; hoced c’hwepat; c’hwipañ
arnaquer; arracher to rip off twyllo; rogio c’hwepat; diframmañ
la tartelette de Noël (aux fruits secs) mince pie tarten Nadolig; teisen/cacen friwdda; mins-pei tartezennig nedeleg (?)
muet mute mud mud
le chèque-cadeau; le bon-cadeau gift token/voucher tocyn anrheg chekenn prof
la coccinelle ladybird buwch goch gota buoc’han
il fait nuit/noir it’s dark mae’n dywyll ez eo teñval
commencer à faire nuit to get dark tywyllu krog da zuañ
l’oie (f) /wa/ goose gwydd gwaz

Bosky bosses

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].

Fudge and flapdoodle!

Flapdoodle Dinghy

Another interesting word I came across this week is flapdoodle /flæpˈduːd(ə)l/, which the OED defines as ‘the stuff they feed fools on’, which comes from the following quote:

‘The gentleman has eaten no small quantity of flapdoodle in his lifetime.’ ‘What’s that, O’Brien?’ replied I… ‘Why, Peter,’ rejoined he, ‘it’s the stuff they feed fools on.’

Another example of use of this word is the exclamation ‘Fudge and flapdoodle!’, which I think sounds wonderfully silly, and is possible alternative to stronger exclamations.

Flapdoodle is also ‘nonsense, bosh and humbug; a trifling thing or gewgaw’, and has been used as a verb meaning ‘to talk nonsense’.

The etymology given in the OED is that it is ‘an arbitrary formation’, similar to fadoodle (something foolish or ridiculous; nonsense).

There is also a tiny, folding sailing dinghy called the flapdoodle dinghy (pictured top right).

Do you know any similarly silly words with a similar meaning?