Re:Italian seaside residents hit with bygone feudal tax
by jmkb on Tuesday May 25, 2021 @10:49AM
(#27277524)
My favorite piece-of-land word is "gore," which is either a triangular parcel formed where roads intersect at an acute angle, or a narrow strip of land (usually also an acute triangle) of uncertain ownership resulting from inaccurate surveying. It's derived from the Old English word for spear, which also came to mean stab, and a stab wound, and eventually blood-n-guts in general.
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Re:Italian seaside residents hit with bygone feudal tax
by acheron on Tuesday May 25, 2021 @11:31AM
(#27278146)
Yep. Old English word for spear was "gar". One vegetable was related to the leek, but they described the clove as spear-shaped: the gar-leek. https://www.etymonline.com/word/garlic
Re:Italian seaside residents hit with bygone feudal tax
by jmkb on Tuesday May 25, 2021 @12:44PM
(#27279125)
Hah. I assume the English were looking at the budding shoot (aka "garlic scape" [0]) when they named it, whereas the Germans were looking at the knobby root (Knoblauch = knob leek).
[0] https://ediblejersey.ediblecommunities.com/recipes/garlic-sc...
Re:Italian seaside residents hit with bygone feudal tax
by mellavora on Tuesday May 25, 2021 @12:23PM
(#27278829)
And interestingly enough, the Swedish word for the fish which is called "pike" in English is "gär".
Lots of Nordic words in old English.
Re:Italian seaside residents hit with bygone feudal tax
by kjs3 on Tuesday May 25, 2021 @01:19PM
(#27279581)
Also interesting is we (US, at least) have a fish called a 'gar' that looks similar to a pike, but isn't technically. Pike are family Esocidae and gar are family Lepisosteidae.
Re:Italian seaside residents hit with bygone feudal tax
by bivargen on Tuesday May 25, 2021 @02:28PM
(#27280427)
No, it’s not, the fish is called ”gädda”. The swedish cognate to gar would be ger, which has the same meaning of acute angle/point.
Re:Italian seaside residents hit with bygone feudal tax
by throwaway894345 on Tuesday May 25, 2021 @11:51AM
(#27278407)
People in this thread might be interested in the History of English Podcast. I highly recommend it if you're interested in etymology and/or history: https://historyofenglishpodcast.com