NFX posted:

I miswrote, the Danish name is "kvist" (a "kip" is when the ceiling follows the roof and meets in a point). The English "dormer" comes from the word for sleeping (since it was used in sleeping rooms), and it seems to me that the French word is related to light (although that's a pure guess).

NFX posted:

I miswrote, the Danish name is "kvist" (a "kip" is when the ceiling follows the roof and meets in a point). The English "dormer" comes from the word for sleeping (since it was used in sleeping rooms), and it seems to me that the French word is related to light (although that's a pure guess).

quote:

From Middle French lucarne, luquarme, from Old French lucanne (“opening in the roof of a house, skylight, loft”), from Frankish *lūkinna (“opening closed by a valve, flap”), from Proto-Germanic *lūkinjō (“aperture, window”), from *lūkaną (“to lock, turn”), from Proto-Indo-European *lewg- (“to bend, turn”). Cognate with Middle Low German lūke (“skylight, window”), Dutch luik (“trap door, shutter”), German Luke (“hatch, hatchway, skylight”).

NFX posted:

I miswrote, the Danish name is "kvist" (a "kip" is when the ceiling follows the roof and meets in a point). The English "dormer" comes from the word for sleeping (since it was used in sleeping rooms), and it seems to me that the French word is related to light (although that's a pure guess).

Krankenstyle posted:

Kvist (dormer) and kvist (thin tree-branch) come from to Old Norse kvistr meaning "split in twain" according to the DDO dictionary.

The older ODS dictionary even has tagkvist which it says is rarely used.

Kassad posted:

It's apparently derived from a Germanic word, the ressemblance to the Latin for "light" is misleading:

It's distantly related to "lock" (as in gates in a canal). Etymology is neat.

Tree Bucket posted:

This has been a good few pages.
Anyway, here's a question- what's the most obnoxious folk etymology you've ever encountered? I remember reading, in an actual book, that the phrase "shut your face" clearly dates back to the medieval period and refers to the visors on knight's helmets.

Former DILF posted:

have we covered the whole Dispater/Eu Pater/Jupiter & Divvus/Zeus angle yet

NFX posted:

to be fair, French language is allowed to borrow from Frankish.

So it's a sleeping room window, a hatch, a twig, an outcropping, a small vent (Spanish) or the color of an abbot's dress (Italian).

Helith posted:

And Frankish was a Germanic language as the Franks were a Germanic tribe, so French is the most Germanic of the romance languages with about 20% of modern French words having Germanic roots.

Tree Bucket posted:

This has been a good few pages.
Anyway, here's a question- what's the most obnoxious folk etymology you've ever encountered? I remember reading, in an actual book, that the phrase "shut your face" clearly dates back to the medieval period and refers to the visors on knight's helmets.

Tashilicious posted:

Does that include the english loan words that are also germanic?

Tree Bucket posted:

This has been a good few pages.
Anyway, here's a question- what's the most obnoxious folk etymology you've ever encountered? I remember reading, in an actual book, that the phrase "shut your face" clearly dates back to the medieval period and refers to the visors on knight's helmets.

quote:

LIFE IN THE 1500'S
The next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature isn't just how you like it, think about how things used to be. Here are some facts about the1500s

Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting ! to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children Last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it. Hence the saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water."

Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high,with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived! in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and off the roof. Hence the saying "It's raining cats and dogs."

There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence.

The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence the saying "dirt poor." The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet , so they spread thresh (straw) on floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh, until when you opened the door it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entranceway. Hence the saying a "thresh hold."

In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme, "Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old."

Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could "bring home the bacon." They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and "chew the fat."

Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or "upper crust."

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a "wake."

England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a "bone-house" and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the "graveyard shift") to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be "saved by the bell" or was considered a "dead ringer."

System Metternich posted:

System Metternich posted:

Tree Bucket posted:

This has been a good few pages.
Anyway, here's a question- what's the most obnoxious folk etymology you've ever encountered? I remember reading, in an actual book, that the phrase "shut your face" clearly dates back to the medieval period and refers to the visors on knight's helmets.

ToxicSlurpee posted:

For the most part people just pissed wherever they were. This is one reason theaters handed out fruits or vegetables with a rind to theatergoers; it soaked up all the piss when they just threw the rind on the ground.

Piss was also used in leather tanning. This is why the phrase "piss poor" exists. You could sell you piss to the tannery for a pittance. Most people wouldn't bother as it probably wasn't worth the walk and who the hell wants to deliberately save their piss? This is also why "can't even afford a pot to piss in" is a thing; it meant that you were so poor you'd normally sell your piss but you couldn't even afford the tools to do that.

System Metternich posted:

System Metternich posted:

Former DILF posted:

have we covered the whole Dispater/Eu Pater/Jupiter & Divvus/Zeus angle yet

System Metternich posted:

I first saw this as a FW:FW:FW:LIFE IN THE 1500‘S sort of text somewhen during the mid-to-late aughts (though I suppose it’s quite a bit older) and it’s had a special place of hate in my heart ever since

Alhazred posted:

A fun thing Asterix and Obelix does. This is how Vercingetorix surrendered in the first panel of the series:

But when Caesar tells the story it looks a bit different:

Alhazred posted:

My favorite weird etymology is the norwegian saying "there's owls in the moss" which means that something is suspect. This saying is a mistranslation of a danish saying "there's wolves in the marsh" which makes a lot more sense.

I've also read that pussy as a word for the female genitalia doesn't have anything do with cats but comes from the norse word pūss which means pocket.

Wipfmetz posted:

Btw: please do not confuse "dutch" with "deutsch" on the internet. Thank you.

canyoneer posted:

It's like elves. You have Forest Germans (Germans), Mountain Germans (Swiss, Austrians), Swamp Germans (Dutch), and Frost Germans (Scandinavian).

Wipfmetz posted:

Has the german word "Biwak" (EN: "Bivouac shelter") been mentioned yet? It's a loan word from the french "Bivouak" which is a loan word from the german "Beiwache" (~"secondary guard", like a small temporary shelter next to a main guard hall). Somewhere, the dutch were involved.

Btw: please do not confuse "dutch" with "deutsch" on the internet. Thank you.

DONT TOUCH THE PC posted:

Where does that leave the Danes?

edit:
By which I mean, it seems that Danes are swamp-Germans, but also Scandinavians?

DONT TOUCH THE PC posted:

Where does that leave the Danes?

edit:
By which I mean, it seems that Danes are swamp-Germans, but also Scandinavians?

DONT TOUCH THE PC posted:

Where does that leave the Danes?

edit:
By which I mean, it seems that Danes are swamp-Germans, but also Scandinavians?

edit 2:
...and northern-Germany, esp. Ost-Friesland seems very swampy too!