Here’s a recording in a mystery language.
Do you know, or can you guess, the language?
Tag: omniglot
Griffonage
What do griffons have to do with messy writing? Let’s find out.
Griffonage [ˈɡrɪfəˌnɑːʒ] is a rarely-used word that means careless handwriting or a crude or illegible scrawl. It comes from the French word griffonner (to scribble, scrawl), from griffer (to scratch), from Old French grifer, from griffe (claw, talon), from Old High German grīfan (to grab, grasp, gripe), from Proto-Germanic *grīpaną (to grab, grasp), from PIE *gʰreyb- (to grab, grasp) [source].
Words from the same roots include grip, gripe, grab, grasp, grave, groove, grope, grovel, grub and engrave in English, gryp (to grab) in Afrikaans, gräifen (to reach for, grab, catch) in Luxembourgish, grinfia (claw) in Italian, grípa (to catch, grab, clasp) in Icelandic, and grippe (influenza, flu) in French [source].
Other ways to describe messy handwriting in English include scribble, scrawl, chicken scratch and cacography, which also means bad spelling or puntuation, or deliberate comic misspelling [source]. Are there others?
Ways to describe messy handwriting in other languages include:
- ագռավի ճանկեր (ագռավի ճանկեր) = crow’s claws in Armenian
- 涂鸭 [塗鴨] (túyā) = daub(ings) of a duck in Chinese
- kragetæer = crow’s feet in Danish
- hanenpoten = cockerel feet in Dutch
- harakanvarpaat = magpie toes in Finnish
- pattes de mouche = fly’s legs in French
- ορνιθοσκαλίσματα (ornithoskalísmata) = chicken carvings in Greek
- ysgrifennu fel traed brain = writing like crow’s feet in Welsh [source]
It seems that messy handwriting is associated with crows and other birds in quite a few languages.
This post was inspired by this video on TikTok.
Language Quiz
Fribblish Fribblers
Do you fribble? Are you a fribblish fribbler?
Fribble [ˈfɹɪbəl] is an old word meaning to waste or fritter; to behave in a frivolous way or to totter. As an adjective it means of little or no importance or frivolous, and as a noun it means a trifling action, a trifler, a frivolous, contemptible fellow or a fop [source].
It is possibly related to frivol (to behave frivolously, to triffle), from French frivole (vain, conceited), from Latin frīvolus (silly, empty, trifling, frivolous, worthless), possibly from PIE *bʰreyH- (to scrape, pierce) [source].
Words related to fribble include fribbledom (frivolous or trifling behaviour), fribbleism (frivolity), fribbler (one who trifles or behaves frivolously), and fribblish (frivolous, trifling).
Words related to frivol include frivolous (silly, slight, trivial), frivolity (frivolous act, state of being frivolous) and maybe brine (salt water) and fray in English, frivol (frivolous) in Romanian, frívolo (frivolous, futile, inconstant, silly) in Portuguese, frívolo (frivolous, flippant) in Spanish [source].
Language Quiz
Horse Gate
What does a horse at a gate have to do with breaking and entering? Let’s find out.
The Chinese word 闯入 [闖入] means to break into, to barge into, to intrude (into), to charge in, or to gate-crash. It’s pronounced chuǎngrù in Mandarin and cong2 jap6 in Cantonese. It’s also found in Japanese as 闖入 (chinnyū), meaning instrusion or forced entry [source].
What’s that all got to do with horses and gates?
Well, the first character, 闯 [闖] means to rush, to charge, to dash, to break through, to temper oneself (through battling hardships) in Mandarin and Cantonese [source 1], [source 2], and to rush in or burst in in Japanese [source]. It’s made up of the characters 门 [門] (mén / mun4 / mon), meaning gate, door, entrance, and 马 [馬] (mǎ / maa5 / ba), meaning horse. It’s an ideogrammic compound that could be interpreted as a horse rushing through a gate [source].
The second character, 入 means to enter, go into, join and various other things in Chinese, and to enter or insert and so on in Japanese [source].
The character 闯 [闖] also appears in words such as:
- 闯荡 [闖盪] (chuǎngdàng / cong2 dong6) = to leave home to work, to get away from home, to wander the world, well-traveled, adventurous (Mandarin & Cantonese)
- 闯祸 [闖禍] (chuǎngguò / cong2 wo6) = to get into trouble, to suffer disaster, to suffer an accident, to induce or cause a disaster or misfortune (Mandarin / Cantonese)
- 私闯 [私闖] (sīchuǎng / si1 cong2) = to enter (a place) without permission, to intrude into (Mandarin / Cantonese)
- 闯关者 [闖關者] (chuǎngguānzhě / cong2 gwaan1 ze2) = gate-crasher, person who crashes through a barrier (Mandarin / Cantonese)
- 闖入者 (chinnyūsha) = to intruder or trespasser (Japanese)
- 闖入する (chinnyū suru) = to intrude or break in (Japanese)
Sources: Wiktionary, MDBG, CC-Canto, jisho
Language Quiz
Grabbing Gripes
Are the words grip, gripe and grab related? Let’s find out.
Grip [ˈɡɹɪp] means to take hold (of), particularly with the hand, a hold or way of holding, particularly with the hand, and various other things. It comes from Middle English grippen (to grip, grab onto, steal), from Old English grippan (to seize, grip), from Proto-Germanic *gripjaną (to grip, hold on to), from *grīpaną (to grab, grasp), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰrebʰ- (to seize, grab, dig, rake) [source].
Gripe [ɡɹaɪp] means to complain, to whine, to annoy, to bother, a complaint, often a petty or trivial one, and so on. Like grip, it comes from Middle English grippen (to grip, grab onto, steal), etc [source].
So grip and gripe are related. What about grab?
Grab [ˈɡɹæb], which means to grip suddenly, to seize, to clutch, and so on, comes from Middle Dutch grabben or Middle Low German grabben (to grasp, grab, seize, snatch), from Old Saxon gravan (to dig), from Proto-West Germanic *grabbōn, form Proto-Germanic *grabōną (to gather, rake), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰrebʰ- (to seize, grab, dig, rake) [source].
So grip, gripe and grab are probably related.
Other words from the same roots include grasp, grave, groove, grope, grovel, grub and engrave in English, grijpen (to grab) and begrijpen (to understand) in Dutch, greifen (to grab, grasp, grip) in German, griffer (to scratch) in French, grabar (to record, engrave) in Spanish, gribe (to catch, seize, grab, grasp, grip) in Danish, grabić (to rake, rob, plunder) in Polish, and greim (to grip, hold, bite, stitch) in Irish [source].
Language Quiz
Roaring Waves
One word that came up in my Cantonese lessons recently was 海嘯 (hoi² siu³), which means tsunami. This surprised me, as I would have guessed that the Japanese word 津波 (tsunami) would have been borrowed into Chinese and given a Chinese pronunciation. Apparently not.
海嘯 [海啸] is also found in Mandarin, means the same thing, and is pronounced hǎixiào. The first character, 海 (hoi² / hǎi) means ocean, sea or a great number of people or things, while the second character, 嘯 [啸] (siu³ / xiào) means to hiss or whistle in Cantonese, and to whistle, screech, howl or roar in Mandarin. So 海嘯 [海啸] could be translated literally as ‘ocean whistle’, ‘ocean roar’, ‘sea hiss’, and so on [source].
Related words include:
- 大海嘯 [大海啸] (daai⁶ hoi² siu³ / dàhǎixiào) = megatsunami (an extremely large tsunami-like wave caused by an avalanche or landslide displacing large amounts of water very quickly)
- 氣象海嘯 [气象海啸] (hei³ zoeng⁶ hoi² siu³ / qìxiàng hǎixiào) = meteotsunami (a tsunami-like wave of meteorological origin)
嘯 [啸] (siu³ / xiào) also appears in 呼嘯 [呼啸] (fu¹ siu³/ hūxiào) = to whistle, scream, whiz; and 長嘯 [长啸] (coeng⁴ siu³/ chángxiào) = to let out a long, loud and clear cry [source].
The word 海嘯 (kaishō) also exists in Japanese, and means a tidal bore, a tsunami or a tidal wave [source].
The Japanese word 津波 (tsunami) means tsunami or tidal wave. 津 (tsu / shin) means harbour, port or ferry. It appears in words such as 津液 (shineki – saliva, spit, spittle), and 津々 (shinshin – gushing, overflowing, everlasting, unfailing, endless) [source].
波 (nami / ho) means wave, billow, ripple break, swell, ups and downs, advancing step by step, surging forward unopposably, succession of changes, tendency or (new) wave [source].
It appears in words such as:
- 波打つ (namiuchi) = to dash against, billow, roll, wave, heave, pound, undulate)
- 波風 (namikaze) = wind and waves, discord, trouble, strife, hardships)
- 波立つ (namidachi) = to be choppy, rough, swell, beat fast, be in turmoil)
- 波頭 (namigashira / hotō) = wave crest, white caps
- 波長 (hochō) = wavelength
- 波長 (hochō) = wavelength
- 波紋 (homon) = ripple, ring on the water, repercussions
- 波乱 (horan) = disturbance, trouble, commotion, uproar, turmoil, ups and downs (of live) vicissitudes, small and large waves
The characters 津 and 波 are both used in Chinese, but not together. 津 (jīn) means saliva, sweat, a ferry crossing or a ford (river crossing), and appears in the name of 天津 (Tiānjīn), a city in the northeast of China; while 波 (bō) means wave, ripple, storm or surge, and appears in 波兰 [波蘭] (Bōlán), the Chinese name for Poland [source].