Brain training

By Simon

According to an article I came across today in the Financial Times, computer games designed to improve your brain have only negligible effect on your mental ability and cognitive function.

Researchers at Cambridge University, Manchester University and King’s College London have carried out large-scale clinical trials of brain training games and found very little or no improvements in the participants who played the games. In some cases the control group showed more improvement than the brain training group. The conclusion is that while there’s no harm in brain training, apart from the cost of buying the programs, it doesn’t have any significant benefit either. The lead researcher, Dr Adrian Owen of Cambridge University, commented that,

“Brain training doesn’t do you any harm but you might as well do something else mentally stimulating, like learning a new language – it’s as good as brain training and you will be able to speak a foreign language.”

Have you tried any of these brain training programs? Have they been effective?

Spincop

By Simon

Spider / Spincop

William Caxton introduced printing into England, and also translated a number of literary works from French, Latin and Dutch. Within his translations he used words he picked up while learning and practising his trade in Germany and Belgium, including spincop, from the Dutch spinnekop (spider), and okselle, from the Dutch oksel (armpit).

The English word spider comes via the Middle English spither and the Old English spiþra from the Proto-Germanic *spenthro, which comes from *spenwanan (to spin). Another Old English for spider was gangewifre (a weaver as he goes). In other Germanic languages the words for spider retain the link to spin: Spinne (German), spinnekop / spin (Dutch), spindel (Swedish) and שפּין (shpin) – Yiddish.

When I came across the word spincop it set me wondering whether it might be related to a Welsh word for spider, copyn (also cop, pryf cop(yn), corryn). Does anyone know the etymology of these words?

The Proto-Indo-European root word for spider is *araKsn, and the words for spider in the Romance languages come from this root: aranea (Latin), aranya (Catalan), aranha (Portuguese), araña (Spanish), ragno (Italian).

While okselle didn’t really catch on in Standard English, a related word, oxter, is used in dialects of Northern England, and in Hiberno English and Scots. This word is thought to come from the Old English ōxta, which is probably related to the Old English word axle or axis – eax. The medical term for this part of the body is axilla, which comes from Latin and is diminutive of ala (wing).

Chef-io

By Simon

Yesterday while listening to Blas, a cookery programme on Radio Cymru, I heard one of the contributors use the verb “chef-io” [ˈʃefɪɔ] in a sentence something like “Dw i wedi chef-io ers X flywyddyn” (I’ve been chefing for X years).

This struck me as quite a useful verbing of a noun and is also possible in English, though I’ve never heard this usage before. You could also say “Dw i wedi gweithio fel chef ers X flywyddyn” / “I’ve been working as a chef for X years”, but might be a bit too long-winded.

There are Welsh words for chef, by the way – pen-cogydd (head cook) and prif gogydd (main cook).

Another interesting verbing I heard recently was in a programme about mountain climbing in which the mountaineers talked about summiting, i.e. reaching the summit of the mountain. Have you heard this usage before, or other verbing like this.

Hens and chickens

By Simon

Hens

There are a number of words in English for the domesticated fowl Gallus gallus domesticus:

  • Chicken – general word for the birds and their meat
  • Cock / Rooster – adult male
  • Cockerel – adult male under a year old
  • Hen -adult female
  • Pullet – young female
  • Chook – general word for the birds used in Australia, New Zealand and some varieties of British English
  • Broiler – a type of chicken raised specifically for meat production

Chicken originally referred only to the chicks of this species, and the general term for them was domestic fowl or fowl. It comes from the Old English word cicen (also written cycen and ciecen) and is probably a diminutive of cocc.

Cock comes from the Old English cocc (male bird) and is thought to be an imitation of the sounds made by birds.

Rooster is derived from to roost, from the Old English hróst (perch / roost), and was originally roost cock in the 17th century but lost the second half of the phrase thanks to Puritan influence.

Hen comes from the Old English henn, which can be traced back to the PIE root *kan (to sing), via the West Germanic *khannjo, the feminine form of *khan(e)ni (male fowl, cock – lit. “bird who sings for sunrise”). In Old English hana was cock/rooster.

Pullet comes from the Latin pullus (a young animal or bird) via the Old French poulette (chicken), a diminutive poule (hen), and the Anglo-Norman pullet (chick / young bird).

Cockerel is just a diminutive of cock.

Chook probably comes from the British dialect words chuck or chucky (chicken) and is imitative of the sound made by chickens.

Broiler comes from the Old French bruller (to broil, roast).

Bœuf

By Simon

One thing we were discussing last week at the French conversation group was words for animals and their meat. In French the words for meat are also used for the animals: bœuf means beef and ox, porc means pork and pig, mouton means mutton and sheep, while in English there are different words for these things.

The popular explanation for the different English words for the animals and their meat is that after the Norman invasion of Britain in 1066, the animals were reared by the English, who called them cý, pecges and scéapes (cows, pigs and sheep) and eaten by the Normans, who called them boef, porc and motun (beef, pork and mutton). However the distinction between the names for the meat and the animals didn’t become set until the 18th century, and mutton and beef were used to refer to sheep and cows for many centuries after the Norman Conquest.

Bœuf comes from the Latin bos (ox, cow), the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European (PIE) root of which is gwóu (cow). This is also the root of vache, the French word for cow, via the Latin vacca (cow), and of the English word cow, via the Old English cú (pl. cý) and the reconstructed Proto-Germanic word kwom. In fact many of the words for cow, bull or cattle in Indo-European languages probably come from the PIE root gwóu. Examples include: bó (Irish and Scottish Gaelic), booa (Manx), buwch (Welsh), bugh (Cornish), buoc’h (Breton), govs (Latvian), կով (kov) (Armenian), گاو (gav – Persian) and Kuh (German).

As well as ox or steer and beef, bœuf also means (a) surprising; unusual; (b) stupid (in Swiss French); (c) (musical) jam session / jazz improvisation.

Idioms containing bœuf include:

  • avoir un boeuf sur la langue (to have a cow on the tongue) = to keep quiet; not give anything away
  • boeuf carottes (beef carrots) = internal affairs (Police)
  • comme un boeuf (as an ox) = very strong
  • gagner son boeuf (to earn one’s beef) = to earn a living
  • on n’est pas des boeufs (we are not cattle) = a little consideration and respect, I beg you

Meanings of mouton include: (a) sheep; (b) mutton; (c) sheep / lamb (someone easily led); (d) stool pigeon / grass; (e) moutons = white horses (on waves) / fluff / fluffy or fleecy clouds. Mutton and mouton possibly come from the Gaulish multo (ram) via the Middle Latin multonem and the Old French moton (ram, wether, sheep).

Idioms containing mouton include:

  • mouton à cinq pattes (a sheep with five feet) = white elephant rara avis / rare bird (something difficult or impossible to find)
  • revenir à ses moutons (to return to one’s sheep) = to return to the thread / subject of one’s discourse
  • suivre comme un mouton (to follow like a sheep) = to act like everyone else; gregarious

Sources
http://www.anglo-norman.net/
http://www.ceantar.org/Dicts/MB2/mb04.html
http://www.indo-european.nl/
http://www.le-dictionnaire.com/
http://www.etymonline.com/
http://indoeuro.bizland.com/project/phonetics/word28.html

Berreen bog

By Simon

Teisen lap

Ren mee teisen lap (berreen bog) fastyr jiu lesh oijys ayns my lioar oijys Vretnagh. T’eh brishlagh çheumooie as bog çheusthie, as ta blass feer vie er. Ta mee goaill taitnys mooar as coagyraght, as ta mee janoo cooid vooar jeh er y gherrid.

Cáca tais

Rinne mé teisen lap (cáca tais) leis oideas í mo leabhar oideas Bhreatnaise. Tá sé go briosc amuigh agus go bog as go tais istigh, agus tá blas an-mhaith air. Bhainim an-sult as cócaireacht, agus bím ag déanamh cuid mhaith le déanaí.

Teisen lap

Mi nes i teisen lap y prynhawn ‘ma efo rysáit yn fy lyfr ryseitiau Cymreig. Mae hi’n greisionllyd tu allan ac yn feddal ac yn laith tu mewn, ac mae blas hyfryd arni. Dw i’n mwynhau coginio yn fawr, ac dw i’n gwneud ychydig ohono yn ddiweddar.

Laa ruggyr

By Simon

Ta my laa ruggyr ayn jiu, as t’eh doillee dou dy chredjal dy vel mee daeed bleeaney d’eash.

Penblwydd

Heddiw ydy fy mhenblwydd, ac mae hi’n anodd i gredu mod i’n deugain mlwydd oed.

Breithlá

Tá mo bhreithlá ann inniu, agus tá sé deacair a chreidiúint go bhfuil mé dhá scór bliain d’aois.

Camels

By Simon

Camels

There’s a popular myth that each Arabic word can denote itself, its opposite, and a kind of camel. Another version of this is that “Every Arabic word has a basic meaning, a second meaning which is the exact opposite of the first, a third meaning which refers to either a camel or horse, and a fourth meaning that is so obscene that you’ll have to look it up for yourself.” [source].

One possible example of this is rass (رأس ?), which apparently means to eat a lot, to eat a little, and a camel with especially hairy ears*.

I haven’t been able to find this word in any online dictionaries – does anybody know if it actually exists? Are there any other examples of words like this?

[*From: The Secret Life of Words – How English Became English by Henry Hitchings]