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Post by UKarchaeology on Aug 6, 2015 18:40:58 GMT
10 borrowed Arabic words;* The word cheque comes from the Arabic word saqq, and reflects the sophistication of finance in Arab countries in the early middle ages * The word algorithm is derived from the name of Abū Abdallah Muḥammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi whose name (al-Khwarizmi) is, in Latin, Algoritmi * Cipher comes from Arabic sifr, meaning "zero, naught, nothing" * The word for cotton derives from the Arabic qutn * Ghoul is an Arabic word for "a desert demon which can appear in different forms and shapes; an ogre or cannibal" * The English magazine is a word borrowed from the Arabic makhzan, meaning "storehouse" * Nadir has its origin in Arabic nazir, indicating "opposite, facing, parallel" * Tamarind refers to Arabic tamr hindi, literally meaning "Indian date" * The word safari has its root in the Arabic word safar, which means "journey" * Tariff comes from Arabic ta'rif, which means "notification" or "definition" ( www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22190802 )
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Post by UKarchaeology on Aug 10, 2015 22:37:38 GMT
50 words from India A - atoll, avatar B - bandana, bangle, bazaar, Blighty, bungalow C - cashmere, catamaran, char, cheroot, cheetah, chintz, chit, chokey, chutney, cot, cummerbund, curry D - dinghy, doolally, dungarees G - guru, gymkhana H - hullabaloo J - jodhpur, jungle, juggernaut, jute K - khaki, kedgeree L - loot N - nirvana P - pariah, pashmina, polo, pukka, pundit, purdah, pyjamas S - sari, shampoo, shawl, swastika T - teak, thug, toddy, typhoon V - veranda Y - yoga www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18796493
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Post by UKarchaeology on Aug 10, 2015 22:45:52 GMT
"Bert Garza of Austin, Texas drew attention to some of the words of Spanish origin that still carry an unmistakable twang of the Old West, such as corral, bronco, chaps (short for chaparreras), rodeo, and lasso - to which you could add bonanza, canyon, stampede, lariat, or that standby of cowboy films vamoose (literally "Let's go!"). He points out that the Spanish influence is there in words and flavours on the high street today - you can't go a block in downtown Austin without finding tacos, fajitas, or tequila. Many of these words are now also very familiar in English in other parts of the world, but probably their pathway has been from Spanish to US English and then from the US to other "Englishes" all around the world. This sort of borrowing between varieties of English grows ever more in importance as the global spread of English continues apace. "Among borrowings in the other direction, from Portuguese to English, readers noted the ubiquitous samba, as well as favela (shanty town), caipirinha (a Brazilian cocktail), cachaca (rum-like spirit), acai (type of palm tree), and the aggressive, predatory piranha (borrowed into English in the early 1700s). Some others are mango, pagoda, monsoon (all borrowed way back in the 1580s), mongoose (1673), teak (1698), or cuspidor (1779). Sometimes it is hard to be certain whether a word has come into English from Portuguese or Spanish, for instance caste, hurricane, banana, molasses, flamingo, grandee (all borrowed in the 1500s), yam or pimento (both mid-1600s).In very many cases, English has borrowed a word from one language that had previously borrowed it from elsewhere. Among those Portuguese and Spanish words there are many that originated among speakers of very different languages. For instance, piranha comes ultimately from Tupi (a language of Brazil) and acai comes from a related language called Nheengatu, while mango is probably ultimately from Malayalam across the other side of the world in India, and monsoon is ultimately from Arabic (and in a further twist, Dutch may also have played a hand in how it came into English from Portuguese). It is often useful to distinguish between immediate and remoter origins of words. For instance, among the French borrowings into English in the original article, peace comes from an earlier form of French paix which goes right back to the Latin origins of the French language (the Romans spoke about pax), but war comes from a northern variant of French guerre, a word which French originally borrowed from a Germanic relative of German and Dutch. A similar example noted by a reader is boulevard, a word that English borrowed from French in the 1760s, but that French itself borrowed in the Middle Ages from Dutch bollwerk or a related word, making the word seem more familiar by substituting the ending -ard of words like placard. In some cases English acts as the middle-man - cake probably came into English from early Scandinavian in the 1200s, but has since been borrowed from English into numerous languages in Europe and beyondMore; www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-26137419
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Post by UKarchaeology on Nov 23, 2015 20:40:25 GMT
Examples of German words in the English language; Haus/house Bier/beer Milch/milk Wasser/water Kuh/cow Brot/bread Fuchs/fox Wolf/wolf Vater/father Mutter/mother Sohn/son Tochter/daughter The same holds true for many major verbs: schwimmen/swim;trinken/drink; sitzen/sit; setzen/set; halten/hold; lernen/learn; liegen/lie; sehen/see; passen/pass; schwitzen/sweat; spucken/spit; singen/sing; lieben/love; hassen/hate; German complicates things with genders and a strict adherence to cases, but the fundamentals of English are there in German. (more: www.quora.com/What-are-some-words-of-Germanic-origin-in-English ) |
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Post by UKarchaeology on Nov 24, 2015 1:16:30 GMT
A Thanksgiving Riddle: Why Are Turkeys Called Turkeys? Upon reaching the New World in 1492, Columbus’ interpreter and a recently converted Jew, Luis de Torres, noticed a strange fowl going “gobble gobble.” He christened it “tuki” after a creature mentioned in the Bible (1 Kings 10:22), which is usually rendered as “peacock” in English translations. From Spanish, tuki made its way to English in the form of “turkey,” which is where the bird eaten on Thanksgiving en masse got its name. The only problem with this fantastic myth bruited about in some Jewish circles is that it’s false. "Tuki" is not a Spanish word for anything, let alone turkey, which they call pavo (originating from the Latin for peafowl). Indeed the bird turkey, in English, is named after the country Turkey, in western Asia, despite being native to North America. That is the result of confusion compounded by more confusion. Apparently the story begins with guineafowl, ground-nesting monogamous birds who thrive on insects and seeds in West Africa. When these birds were brought by merchants to late-Middle Ages markets in England, they were called “turkey-cock” or “turkey-hen,” which became abbreviated asexually to “turkey.” Why these African birds were named after the Turks is not known, but they may have been first introduced to England by Turkish merchants. Full story: www.haaretz.com/jewish/archaeology/.premium-1.687123
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