Email yesterday from P.O.: Professor Liberman, we need you. You're no doubt aware of Trump's recent comment, quoting a supporter. But now TPM has gone and printed a reader email linking 'pussy' to pusillanimous'. I had never heard this before, and I'm fairly well-read. I did some google-sleuthing, and found that it has clearly been […]
I'm prompted to ask this question in response to the very first comment on this post: "'Butterfly' words as a source of etymological confusion" (1/28/16) The comment supplies a link to this YouTube video, in which russianracehorse tells "The Butterfly Joke". A Frenchman, an Italian, a Spaniard, and a German each pronounce the word for […]
Nick Kaldis writes: I've started buying English etymology books for my 8-year-old daughter and I to explore; today we discovered that "butterfly" comes from "butter" + "shit", because their feces resemble butter.
Nicola Esposito sent in the following observations and questions: What is the etymology of ukiyo 浮世, the "floating world" known in the West mostly thanks to its depictions by artists such as Hiroshige, Hokusai and others? While perusing the website of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, I discovered that the origins of ukiyo lie […]
Over at China Economic Review, Hudson Lockett has written an interesting piece worthy of the celebrated British sleuth: "The game is afoot! Why Chinese Sherlock fans are as confused as everyone else" (1/3/16) It's all about how the Chinese term — mǎtí nèifān zú 马蹄内翻足 — for a congenital deformity referred to in English as […]
[This is a guest post by Jichang Lulu] The usual Chinese name for the Lena River is 勒拿河 Lèná hé. That's not a particularly felicitous transcription. Lèná rhymes with 圣赫勒拿 Shèng Hèlèná i.e. St Helena; it fails to reflect the palatalisation of the l in the Russian name. An alternative name transcribes the syllable ле […]
Donald Trump rally 12/21/2015, Grand Rapids, Michigan: l- let me just tell you I may win, I may not win Hillary that's not a president that's not- she's not taking us to the- everything that's been involved in Hillary has been losses you take a look even her race to Obama she was going to […]
It's become our tradition to list the Posts of Christmas Past: 2003 "'Twas the night before Christmas", "Same-sex Mrs. Santa: 'The semantics are confusing'" 2004: "Talking animals: miracle or curse?", "A boxing day election — or not?" 2005: "Christmas trees and holiday trees"; 2006: "Merry … umm … Christmas, Will!", "Like, a Christmas gift card", "Happy […]
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[The first part of this post is from an anonymous contributor.] The Serbian legation in London complains to the media about the spelling Servia, which is 'highly offensive to our people'. (It is true that there is a place in Greece called 'Servia', whose name 'derives from the Latin verb servo, meaning "to watch over"'.)
I'm in Frankfurt for a week, and a stroll through the Weihnachtsmarkt last night with Caroline Féry and Ede Zimmermann reminded me of something I've wondered about for a long time: Why was German Brezel borrowed into English with an initial 'p'?
Ryan Kilpatrick has an interesting article in Hong Kong Free Press: "Taiwan city promises to ‘correct’ simplified road sign after public outcry" (12/7/15) It includes this photograph, which illustrates some of the problems:
From Matthew Yglesias: A few of us at work were talking about why it's adviser and protester but professor and and auditor and after bullshitting around for 10 minutes I thought "maybe I should ask a linguist." Have you ever blogged on this? I don't think that we have, though you can find well-informed discussions […]
I spotted this photograph in an article that I'll describe below: