Drumstick, drumpstick — pesky "p"

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From Yuanfei Wang in Hong Kong:

The Chinese word in question is bì 髀 ("thigh; thigh bone; buttock").

Better get this straightened out before Thanksgiving, whether we're having goose or turkey.

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5 Comments

  1. Ben Zimmer said,

    October 2, 2022 @ 12:45 pm

    That kind of epenthesis bridging [-m] and [st-] with [p] (à la "hampster") is fairly common.

  2. Chas Belov said,

    October 2, 2022 @ 4:09 pm

    I add a "p" sound following the "m" when I say "Amsterdam".

  3. Philip Taylor said,

    October 2, 2022 @ 4:43 pm

    Far less concerned with the epenthetic [p] than I am with the fact that if I paid HKD 10-00 extra for thigh and was given drum(p)stick, I would be extremely unhappy …

  4. Jonathan Smith said,

    October 2, 2022 @ 4:58 pm

    But it would be odd if an HK restaurant messed this up — and come to find out gai1bei2 means 'drumstick'… so all good. My impression is that the Mand. morpheme bi4 'leg, thigh or something' is pretty marginal

  5. Philip Anderson said,

    October 4, 2022 @ 7:13 am

    Samson v Sampson springs to mind; the latter spelling seems to have been introduced in Greek Σαμψών from Hebrew שִׁמְשׁוֹן (šimšôn).

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