Woordenschat

By Simon

Woordenschat en een woordenkist

I came across an interesting Dutch word today – Woordenschat [ˈʋoːɾdəsxɑt] – which means vocabulary. Woorden = words and schat = treasure, and also love honey, darling, sweetheart. So woordenschat is a “treasure of words” or “word treasure”. It reminds me of the English expression wordhoard, an alternative term for vocabulary, from the Old English wordhord.

Are there similarly interesting terms for vocabulary in other languages?

Woord also appears in such expressions as:

– woordafbreking = hyphenation (“word breaking/splitting/dividing”)
– woordelijk = verbatim, literal, word-for-word (“word like”)
– woordenboek = dictionary (“word book”)
– woordenlijst = glossary, word-list (“word list”)
– woordenrijk = verboose, volubly (“word rich”)
– woordenstroom = verbiage (“word flow”)
– woordenwisseling = altercation (“word exchange”)
– woordenzifter = nitpicker, niggler, hair-splitter (“word sifter”)

Schat also appears in such expressions as:

– schatje = baby, honey, sweetheart
– schatkist = treasure chest
– schatmeester = treasurer
– schatrijk = immensely rich

Producing oneself

By Simon

I came across an interesting expression in a French newspaper article I read today – se produire – which means to produce, occur, take place, perform, appear, and appears in such phrases as:

– devoir se produire = to be bound to happen
– se produire sur scène = to appear on stage
– ce qui risque de se produire = what could well happen; what might happen
– laisser se produire = to allow to happen
– se produire en concert = to play in a concert

One literal translation of this expression is “to produce oneself”, and I like the idea that I produced myself (as if from a hat 🙂 at a gig last week.

Source: Reverso

Les mots de le semaine

By Simon
français English Cymraeg
fin thin (layer, cable, wire, fingers, paper) tenau; main
maigre thin (person, animal, smile) tenau; main
mince thin (face, argument, evidence) main
léger thin (fabric, coat) tenau
peu épais thin (soup, sauce) tenau; dyfrllyd
clairsemé thin (hair) tenau; moel
désépaissir to thin (hair) teneuo; moeli
éclaircir to thin (trees) teneuo; mynd yn denau
délayer to thin (sauce, paint) teneuo
fluidifier to thin (blood) teneuo
susceptible thin-skinned croendenau
épais thick trwchus; tew
épaisser thicken tewhau; tewychu
insensible thick-skinned croendew
bête thick (person) twp; hurt; gwirion
au beau milieu de qch;
en plain cœur de qch		 in the thick of sth yng nghanol rhywbeth
être au cœur de l’action to be in the thick of it bod yn ei chanol hi
contre vents et marées through thick and thin drwy’r tew a’r tenau; doed a ddelo
la brochure (gen); le tract (pol) pamphlet llyfryn; pamffledyn; pamffled

Schurrbart

By Simon

Schnurrbart

I came across the wonderful German word Schnurrbart [ˈʃnʊrba:ɐ̯t] recently and just liked the sound of it. The Bart part means beard – you can see the connection – and the Schnurr part comes from schnurren (to purr).

According to Wikipedia: “Ein Schnurrbart ist ein über der Oberlippe wachsender Bart.” or “A moustache is an beard growing over the lip”, and it is also referred to as an Oberlippenbart (overlipbeard). A large moustache is called a Schnauzbart (Schnauze = lip, muzzle, snout).

Other words used for moustache in German include Bürste (brush), Schnauzer (a type of dog), Schnorres, Schnorrati, Sör, Rotzbremse (“snot brake”) and Popelfänger (“bogie catcher”). Do you know/use any others?

Other words for moustache in English include tache/tash, whiskers, face fungus, tea/soup strainer, snot catcher/mop, lip rug, and crumb catcher.

The English word moustache comes from French, from the Neapolitan word mustaccio.

Do moustaches have interesting names or nicknames in other languages?

Sources: bab.La dictionary, PONS dictionary, Wikipedia, howtogrowamoustache.com, OED

Market places

By Simon

Last week the origins of the word agora came up in conversation and I thought I’d find out more.

An agora was a place of gathering or marketplace in Ancient Greece. It comes from the Ancient Greek ἀγείρω [ageirō] (I gather, collect), from the Proto-Indo-European *ger- (to assemble, gather together), which is the root of the English words gregarious, aggregate, congregate, egregious, segregate, allegory, category, and panegyric, via the Latin gregārius (of the herd, common), which comes from grex (herd, flock).

In Romance languages, such as Aragonese, Asuturian, Galician, Ladino, Mirandese and Portuguese, the word agora is also found, but it means ‘now’ and comes from the Latin expression hāc hōra (‘this hour’). The Spanish word ahora (now) comes from the same root. hōra comes from the Ancient Greek ὥρα [hōra] (time, season, year), from the Proto-Indo-European *yōr-ā, a suffixed form of *yēr/*yeh₁r- (year, season), which is the root of the English word year, and the words for year in many other Indo-European languages.

Source: Wiktionary

The friend who asked about agora wondered whether the Welsh word agor (open) might come from the same root. I haven’t been able to find any information about this. Does anybody know?

Grammatical gender matters

By Simon

Loup / Loupe

In languages with grammatical gender, like French, you can often get away with getting the genders wrong, although it’s best to try to learn them when you learn nouns. However there are some words that have different meanings in different genders.

An example in French is loup(e): le loup [lu:] (masculine) is a wolf, and la loupe [lu:p] (feminine) is a magnifying glass – the context will clarify what you mean if you get the genders mixed up, and the pronunciation helps as well.

The following French words have the same pronunciation but different meanings in different genders:

– le boum = bang, explosion / la boum = party
– le bout = tip, end / la boue = mud
– le cave = idiot, sucker / la cave = basement, cellar
– le chêne = oak tree/wood / la chaîne = chain, channel
– le col = collar, neck / la colle = glue
– le livre = book / la livre = pound (curreny/weight)
– le manche = handle / la manche = sleeve / la Manche = English Channel
– le mur = wall / la mûre = blackberry
– le rose = pink (colour) / la rose = rose (flower)
– le vase = vase / la vase = silt, mud

More words like this: http://french.about.com/od/vocabulary/a/dualgender_2.htm

One way to avoid getting your genders in a muddle is to talk about everything in the plural.

Voices and calls

By Simon

After writing yesterday’s post I was thinking about the Czech word hlas [ɦɫas] (voice, vote) and realised that it is quite similar to the Welsh word for voice, llais [ɬais]. I wondered it they share the same root.

Hlas comes from the Proto-Slavic *golsъ (voice), from the Proto-Balto-Slavic *galsas (voice), from the Proto-Indo-European *golHsos, from *gels- (to call)

The words for voice in other Slavic languages come from the same root: Old East Slavic: голосъ (golosŭ); Belarusian: голас (hólas); Russian: голос (gólos) and глас (glas – archaic/poetic); Ukrainian: голос (hólos); Old Church Slavonic: гласъ (glasŭ); Bulgarian: глас (glas); Macedonian: глас (glas); Serbo-Croatian: гла̑с; Slovene: glas; Kashubian: głos; Polish: głos; Slovak: hlas; Lower Sorbian: głos; Upper Sorban: hłós.

Also from the same root are the Latin gallas (cockrel); Romani glaso (voice); Romanian glas (voice, vote); Old Norse kalla (to call); English call, Dutch kallen (to chat, talk); German kallen (to scream, talk loudly, talk too much); Lithuanian galsas (sound, echo); Welsh galw (to call) and llais (voice); and possibly the Irish and Scottish Gaelic glaodh (to cry, shout).

Sources: Wiktionary

Souhlasím

By Simon

I learnt a useful Czech expression today – souhlasím – which means ‘I agree; all right; ok(ay)’. The element hlas (voice; sound; vote) I recognise, and I guessed that the prefix sou- might mean together, or something similar.

According to Wiktionary, sou- is akin to the English prefix co- (together, mutually, jointly), so souhlasím might be literally translated as ‘I together-voice’ or ‘I with-voice’.

Examples of usage and related expressions:

– souhlasím s tebou – I agree with you
– souhlasím s dlouhou procházkou – I am quite game for a long walk
– souhlas = agreement; consent; acceptance; approval; consensus
– souhlasit (s) – to agree (with); approve; concure; assent; go along (with)
– souhlasící = agreeable; congruous; consentaneous

Sources: slovnik.cz, bab.la Dictionary