Month: May 2018

Handy hands

By Simon

Hands

In Welsh the word for hand is llaw [ɬau̯], which also means authority, control, influence; side, direction, position; skill, touch; hand(-writing), signature; hand (of cards); hand (for measuring horses); man, person; workman; expert.

When talking about a pair of hands, the dual form dwylo is used. Plural forms for three or more hands are llawiau, llawau or llawoedd.

Do any other languages have different dual and plural forms like this?

Llaw comes from the Old Welsh lau (hand), from the Proto-Brythonic *lọβ̃ (palm, hand), from the Proto-Celtic *ɸlāmā (palm, hand), from Proto-Indo-European *pl̥h₂meh₂ (palm, hand), which is also the root of the English word palm (of the hand).

Here are some words and phrases llaw appears in:

– llawio = to handle
– llawiog = handy
– llawedig = handled, used
– llawan = litte hand
– llawagored = generous (“open hand”)
– llawdde = skilful, dexterous (“right hand”)
– llawddwein = palmist (“hand wizard”)
– llawfeddyg = surgeon (“hand doctor”)
– llawfer = shorthand
– llaw(h)ir = generous (“long hand”)
– llawlyfr = handbook, manual
– llawysgrif = manuscript
– llawysgrifen = handwriting, longhand
– llawgymwys = even-handed, impartial, unbiased (“hand equal“)
– llawsafiad = handstand
– blaenllaw = in advance, beforehand, previous (“hand”)
– gerllaw = near, close to, by; at hand (“near hand”)
– heblaw = besides, in addition to; without (“without hand”)
– uwchlaw = above, over, beyond (“over hand”)
– islaw = below, beneath, under (“low hand”)
– llaw flewog = pilfering hand, light fingered (“hairy hand”)
– llaw galed = trouble, rough time, hard time (“hard hand”)
– llaw ganol = intermediary, intermediate (“middle hand”)
– ar bob llaw = on all sides, on every side (“on every hand”)
– o waith llaw = handmade

Sources: Wiktionary, Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru, Geiriadur yr Academi, Y Geiriadur Mawr

Morning food and early meals

By Simon

Breakfast in Northern Germanic languages

Yesterday I learnt that the Danish word for breakfast is morgenmad [ˈmɒːɒnˌmað] (“morning food”), which makes sense [source].

Lunch is frokost (“early meal”), which made me think of the German word for breakfast Frühstück (“early piece”).

Frokost comes from the Middle Low German vrōkost (early meal), from vrō (early) and kost (meal, food) [source].

In Norwegian frokost is breakfast, and lunch is lunsj.

In Swedish breakfast is frukost and lunch is lunch.

In Danish dinner is aftensmad (“evening meal”), or middag (“midday”), which also means noon, banquet or lunch. In Norwegian and Swedish middag means dinner, noon or midday [source]. Somewhat confusing!

In Icelandic the meals are: morgunmatur (breakfast – “morning food”) hádegismatur (lunch – “noon food”) and kvöldmatur (dinner – “evening food”) [source].

In Faroese morgunmatur means breakfast, lunch or a snack [source]. Lunch is also miðmáli [source]. Dinner is døgurði [ˈtøːvʊɹɪ], which can also mean lunch [source], or nátturði [ˈnɔtːˌʊɹɪ] = dinner, supper (main) meal in the evening [source].

What do you call the different meals?

The first meal of the day is breakfast for me, whenever I have it. The meal in the middle of the day I used to call dinner, but now call lunch. The evening meal I call tea, or dinner if I eat out somewhere.

Honey eaters, brown ones and tramplers

By Simon

A Eurasian brown bear

In many European languages the words for bear have their origins in taboo avoidance. It is thought that people who spoke Proto-Indo-European (PIE) believed that if you called a bear by its true name, it would hear you and may harm you. So instead they used different names when referring to bears [source].

The words for bear in Germanic languages can be traced back to the PIE *bʰer- (brown), via the Proto-Germanic berô (bear).

Examples include bear (English / West Frisian), beer (Dutch / Afrikaans), Bär (German), Bier (Luxembourgish), björn (Icelandic / Swedish), and bjørn (Norwegian / Danish / Faroese) [source].

In Slavic languages the words for bear can all be traced back to the Proto-Slavic word medvědь, from *medu-ēdis, from medъ (honey) &‎ *(j)ěsti (to eat), so could be translated as “honey eater”.

Examples are медведь (Russian), médved (Slovenian), medvěd (Czech), niedźwiedź (Polish). The Hungarian word for bear, medve, possibly comes from the same root [source].

In Baltic languages the words for bear from the Proto-Baltic *talk-, *tlāk-, from Proto-Indo-European *tel-k-, *tl-ek- (to push, to hit, to kick, to trample), and could be translated as “trampler”, “stomper”, “pounder”, [source]. In Latvian the word is lācis, and in Lithuanian it’s lokys.

The PIE word for bear was *h₂ŕ̥tḱos, which is possibly related to destroying or destruction – another taboo avoidance? This is the root of *artos in Proto-Celtic, άρκτος (árktos) in Greek, ursus in Latin and ari in Albanian, and related words in modern Celtic and Romance languages [source].

Nonce Words

By Simon

This is a wug

A nonce word is “a word occurring, invented, or used just for a particular occasion”, or “a word with a special meaning used for a special occasion” [source].

The word nonce comes from the Middle English nonse / nones, from to þan anes / for þan anes (to/for the one (occasion, instance)). Here’s example of how it’s used: “That will do for the nonce, but we’ll need a better answer for the long term.” [source].

The term ‘nonce word’ was apparently coined by James Murray, the editor of the Oxford English Dictionary [source].

Some nonce words become more widely used. Others may be used only by certain people. Here are a few examples:

– quark – coined by James Joyce in Finnegans Wake. Adopted by Murray Gell-Mann for the subatomic particle [source].

– blurb – “A short description of a book, film, or other work, written and used for promotional purposes.” Coined by American humorist Gelett Burgess on a book dust jacket at a trade association dinner in 1907 [source].

– grok – “to drink; to drink in all available aspects of reality; to become one with the observed. Coined by Robert Heinlein in his book Stranger in a Strange Land (1961). Used to mean “to understand (something) intuitively; to fully and completely understand something in all of its details and intricacies.” [source].

– sniglet – coined by the American comedian Rich Hall for the 1980s TV series Not Necessarily the News. It is defined as, “any word that doesn’t appear in the dictionary, but should” [source].

– wug – a blue bird-like creature that appears in Jean Berko Gleason’s wug test, which investigates the acquisition of the plural form in English-speaking children. Know mainly to linguists. Also features in one of my songs.

A few nonce words I’ve coined include crumptious, snorf, snoob, zambalated, flartled, overflude, flimpsome, plood and tarpool. They appear in my song Plinkin Plookplooks.

I also coined the word omniglot in 1998. I wasn’t the first person to do so though – it also appears in Jenni Fleetwood’s 1988 book, The Intergalactic Omniglot. A book I didn’t know about until after I came up with the word. Has anybody read it?

Do you know of any other nonce words that have become more generally used?

Have you coined any yourself?