The One Etymology Topic

[Mordhak]

Well, I guess I don't need to explain any further what this topic is about.

To copy some earlier stated examples, I'll quote myself:

"Copain" in French. It means "friend". This is, most likely (I think) derived from "coup" (means "cut") and "pain" ( means "bread"). "Couppain" would be "cut bread". Medieval times, and probably today also, when you share your bread with someone else, he is your friend. Simple as that

Dutch, now: "kameraad" is a modern word and also means friend. "Kamer" means "room" and "-aad" was an uncommon suffix that meant "mate" of some sorts. Your "room mate" would be someone who you share your bedroom with, in other words, your friend. Mind "comrade", and "Kamerad" in German.

and KingOfTheIsles:

Yes, it is interesting. For example, cheese. Cheese. Queso. Käse. And, um, fromage. Stupid French.

and Wilpuri:

the Finnish verb 'To Understand', Ymmärtää. The word has its roots in the Finnish word for 'circle', ympyrä. It is a very old word, which was used as a hunting term, 'to surround' =ymmärtää, but nowadays it means 'to understan' and most people don't know the origins of it

To add some more myself, the Dutch word for Cheese is "kaas". About the "stupid French", they have a romanic language after all

I'll come up with more stuff later, I promise.

[KingOfTheIsles]

To add some more myself, the Dutch word for Cheese is "kaas". About the "stupid French", they have a romanic language after all

As do the Spanish, who say "Queso". What is it in Italian and Portugese? Maybe Spain is just the unique one amongst Romance languages.

[Mordhak]

Cheese in Italian is "formaggio", and in Portuguese it's, strangely "queijo", if I'm not mistaken.

[KingOfTheIsles]

Seems like Spanish and Portugese take it from the Germanic root (queso and queijo) while French and Italian take it presumably from the Latin root. Interesting. Wilpuri, Finnish isn't Indo-European, is it? I think it is Finno-Ugric, along with Hungarian and Estonian, but I may be wrong.

[Mordhak]

In Latin, cheese is "caseus". Man, this is getting complicated!

In Finnish, as Wilpuri doubtlessly knows ( ) it's "juusto". In Danish, it's "ost", the same as in Swedish and Norwegian.

:w00t

And now:

Russian: ñûð
Polish: ser
Czech: sýr
Ukrainian: syr
Serbian: sir

Albanian: djathë
Bulgarian: сирене ( :cry )
Greek: ΤΥΡΊ ( :evil )

Middle English: chese
Old English: cese

[KingOfTheIsles]

Ok, so it seems Italian and French take another word as it's root, Dutch, German, English, Spanish and Portugese take Latin as its root, Scandanavian probably takes its own, Germanic root, as Old Norse was probably affected very little by Latin, and Finnish is a completely different language group, so who the hell knows? C'est très compliquée, non?

Edit: Stupid forum board, not representing my special letters correctly.

[Portuguese Rebel]

In Latin, cheese is "caseus"

Which in latin sonority is very similar to "queso" and "queijo" the iberic versions of the word.

[Mordhak]

Cheese is indeed a very nice example of the different language groups. Thank you, KingOfTheIsles.

Now, on to a very difficult one: war.

English: war
French: guerre
German: Krieg
Dutch: oorlog
Latin: bellum

*smokin*

[KingOfTheIsles]

I think many versions of war are based on different words, as it isn't a basic concept. I do know that guerilla comes from the guerre.

[Anoikis]

Originally posted by Mordhak@Sep 27 2004, 01:41 PM
In Latin, cheese is "caseus". Man, this is getting complicated!

interesting tidbit:

in medicine, when we refer to caseating necrosis or caseating granuloma- it means that the tissue has become cheese-like.
This happens in the lung with tuberculosis


GREAT TOPIC Mordhak, btw

[KingOfTheIsles]

Just thought I'd pop in and point out both torsdag and thursday are named after Thor, nordic god of thunder. The German word Donnerstag means, breaking it down, "tag" is day, "donner" is thunder, hence thunder day or Thor's day. Just a bit of useless trivia.

A quote from another post I made somewhere else, which also relates to language and the origin of thursday, donnerstag etc.

[wilpuri]

Originally posted by Mordhak@Sep 27 2004, 07:16 PM
Cheese is indeed a very nice example of the different language groups. Thank you, KingOfTheIsles.

Now, on to a very difficult one: war.

English: war
French: guerre
German: Krieg
Dutch: oorlog
Latin: bellum

*smokin*

And in Swedish: Krig
I'm almost certain it's the same/similar in Norwegian and Danish.

In Finnish it is Sota
Now to an interesting fact: The Sámi languages (the indigenous minority in Lapland) have not had a word for "war" until the last one hundred years or so. So that's what you would call peaceful. It is said that Genghis Khan encountered this people once, and he is supposed to have said "Never again will I wage war against these people, for they simply vanish when I offer battle." or something along those lines. The Sámi languages are related to Finnish and are Finno-Ugric. I think they're possibly the most beautiful languages in the world. Can't get into my head what war is in Sámi, but I suppose it has been borrowed from Finnish.

[Trax]

In estonian

cheese - juust

war - sõda

almost like finnish

[Quintus Maximus]

Just a new word, I always wondered what was up with the word turkey (as in the bird, not the country)
so here's what I got so far:


English: turkey
French: dinde
Dutch: kalkoen
German: truthahn
italian: tacchino
portuguese: perua
Spanish: pavo

so many of them are named after a country as it seems: in english turkey, in french india (inde = india)
and then there's portuguese peru???

anybody explain this please

[Mordhak]

"Kalkoen" in dutch comes from the word "Calcoetse haan" meaning "rooster from Calcutta", which is in Peru.

[Syron]

Originally posted by Quintus Maximus@Sep 28 2004, 12:01 PM
Just a new word, I always wondered what was up with the word turkey (as in the bird, not the country)
so here's what I got so far:


English: turkey
French: dinde
Dutch: kalkoen
German: truthahn
italian: tacchino
portuguese: perua
Spanish: pavo

so many of them are named after a country as it seems: in english turkey, in french india (inde = india)
and then there's portuguese peru???

anybody explain this please

I'll add another to your list, I found out that in Turkish the turkey is called Hindi!

It's to do with trade. Real turkey's come from south america which explains the hispanic "peru".

Apparently another similar bird that was confused with the turkey came from around India hence the middle eastern referrences to india. The major trade route of this bird from india to europe was through turkey hence the english word.

So in this case they all do refer to countries if not correctly, really we should call the turkey's peru's!

[Mordhak]

Well, thanks Syron, "Turkey" is completely explained now :smile

Now, on to the word "Spam". I take it you know that is once was sort of a food product:



The guys kept making soooo much fuss about their new product, that people started to find it annoying, and eventually, the name "Spam" became a universal name for everything that people find annoying. *smokin*

[KingOfTheIsles]

Hmmm.....is that true, Mordhak?

[Mordhak]

Yep.

Take a look.

[Bgreman]

I like this sort of stuff. I think 'mother' is a particularly interesting one.

English: Mother
French: m¨¨re
Russian: §Þ§Ñ§ä§î
Spanish: madre (?)
German: mutter

The 'em' sound is quite predominant.