Here’s a recording in a mystery language.
Do you know, or can you guess, the language?
Lightning Pastries
What links a type of pastry with lightning, flashes and sparkles? Let’s find out.
In English, and many other languages, an eclair / éclair is a small, chocolate-covered, creme-filled pastry puff in a general oblong shape [source].
The word comes from French éclair which can refer to the pastry, and also to lightning, a lightning bolt, a flash of lightning, a glint, flash, gleam or sparkle [source].
It is thought that the name of the pastry comes from the fact that it can be eaten quickly (in a flash), and/or because the glistening of the icing / frosting looks a bit like lightning. The éclair first appeared in Lyon in France in the 19th century, and was called pain à la Duchesse (“Duchess-style bread”) or petite duchesse (“little duchess”) until 1850. After that, the name éclair started to be used in French and in English [source].
The French word éclair comes from éclairer (to light up, brighten, shed light on enlighten, scout) from Old French esclairer (to light up), from Vulgar Latin *exclāriō, *exclāriāre, from Latin exclārāre, from ex- (out, away) and clārō (to brighten, lighten, illuminate, clarify) [source], from clārus (clear, bright, famous, upstanding, loud) from Proto-Indo-European *kelh₁- (to call out to) [source].
Related words and expressions in French include:
- éclair de génie = stroke of genius
- fermeture éclair = zip (fastner), zipper
- rapide comme l’éclair = quick as a flash
- éclairé = well-lit, bright, illuminated, lit, knowledgable, well-informed, enlighted
- éclairement = illumination
- éclairant = illiminating, liminescent, clarifying, instructive
- éclairage = lighting, illumination, perspective
- éclairagiste = lighting specialist, lighting engineer, gaffer (chief lighting technician for a motion-picture or television production) [source].
Words from the PIE root *kelh₁- (to call out to) include acclaim, claim, clamour, clarify, clarinet, class, clear and council in English, klaar (ready, finished, done) in Dutch, exclamer (to exclaim, shout out) in French, coileach (cockerel, rooster) in Irish, hell (clear, bright, light, quick, clever) in German, and llamar (to summon, call, refer to, be called) in Spanish [source].
Language Quiz
Rice
One word I learnt recently in Swahili is wali, which means rice, or more specifically, cooked rice.
Wali (cooked rice)
Wali means cooked rice or cooked grain in Swahili. Other words for rice include mpunga (rice plant, raw unhusked rice), mchele (dehusked, uncooked rice), ubwabwa (ground rice), and mashendea (husked rice) [source].
mpunga (rice plant, raw unhusked rice)
Wali comes from Malagasy vary (uncooked rice), from Proto-Malayic *bəras (rice) amd Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *pajay (rice plant) [source].
Words from the same Proto-Malayic root include beras (uncooked rice, any grain) in Malay and Indonesian, and berau (raw rice) in Iban [source].
Words from the same Proto-Malayo-Polynesian root include palay (rice plant) in Tagalog, fary (sugar cane) in Malagasy, hare ([uncooked] rice, rice plant) in Tetum and padi (rice plant, paddy, unhusked grain) in Malay and Indonesian [source].
The English word paddy also comes from the same roots via Malay. As well as referring to a paddy field or rice paddy (an irrigated or flooded field where rice is grown), it can also mean rough or unhusked rice, either before it is milled or as a crop to be harvested [source].
Japanese also has different words for rice in different states, which include:
- ご飯 (gohan) is cooked rice or a meal
- 飯 (meshi) is cooked rice, meal, food, one’s living or livelihood, or steamed rice
- ライス (raisu) is rice (especially when served on a plate)
- 米 (kome) is husked grains of rice, or a staple (product) or necessity
- 玄米 (genmai) is unpolised rice, unmilled rice or brown rice
- 稲 (ine) is a rice plant [source].
As does (Mandarin) Chinese:
- 饭 [飯] (fàn) is cooked rice
- 米饭 [米飯] (mǐfàn) is cooked rice
- 白饭 [白飯] (báifàn) is plain cooked rice
- 白米 (báimǐ) is polished rice
- 大米 (dàmǐ) is husked rice
- 米 (mǐ) is uncooked rice
- 稻 (dào) is rice growing in a field or a rice plant [source].
How about other languages?
Language Quiz
Hither & Thither
If someone is described as having come-hither eyes, it means their eyes are seducitve or alluring. If you tell a horse to come hither though, what would you expect it to do?
The word hither [ˈhɪðə / ˈhɪðɚ] is a literary or archaic word that means to this place, to here or over here. So if you tell a horse to come hither, you’d expect it to come towards where you are, but this command actually means move to the left, apparently [source].
Hither comes from Middle English hider / hither (to here), from Old English hider (to here), from Proto-Germanic *hidrê (to this place, to here, hither), from *hiz (this) and *-drê (directional suffix) [source].
Related expressions include:
- behither = on this side of (rare, obsolete)
- hither and thither = to here and to here, one place after another, in different directions, in a disorderly manner
- hither and yon = in, at or to various places (dated, literary)
- hithermost = nearest to this side (archaic)
- hithertofore = heretofore, so far, thus far (rare)
What about thither? It means to that place, or to that point, end or result, and is used mainly in the expression hither and thither, and in legal language [source].
There’s also whither, which means to what place, where, to what cause, to which place, in or to any place to which [source].
Language Quiz
Numbering Houses
When is a number not a number? Let’s find out.
The Swahili word nymba [ˈɲu.ᵐbɑ] looks and sounds a bit like the English word number, but actually means house.
It comes from Proto-Bantu *njʊ̀mbá (house) and is related to words such as nyumba (house) in Chichewa, Mwani and Tumbuka, and enyumba (house) in Kabwa [source].
Swahili words derived from nyumba include: nyumbani (home, at home, in the house), chumba (room) and kijumba (small house, cottage), which are diminutives of nyumba, jumba (mansion, large building), an augmentative of nyumba, uchumba (courtship, engagement), mchumba (lover, fiancé(e), partner), nyumba ya uzazi (womb, uterus, lit. “birth room”), nyumba ya dawa (pharmacy, drugstore), and unyumba (marital relations, married life) [source].
The word namba also exists in Swahili, means number, and was borrowed from English. It is a form of nambari (number), and appears in expressions such as namba hasi (negative number), sio na namba (numberless), and nambari ya simu (phone number) [source].
Language Quiz
Fording Fjord Ports
Are the words ford, fjord and port related? Let’s find out.
A ford [fɔːd / fɔɹd] is a location where a stream is shallow and the bottom has good footing, making it possible to cross from one side to the other with no bridge, by walking, riding, or driving through the water.
It comes from Middle English fōrd (ford, watering place, a spring, passage, path), from Old English ford (ford), from Proto-West Germanic *furdu (ford), from Proto-Germanic *furduz (ford), from Proto-Indo-European *pértus (crossing) [source].
Words from the same Proto-Germanic root include Förde (firth, fjord) and Furt (ford) in German, voorde (ford) in Dutch, ffordd (road, distance, way) in Welsh, and fordh (road, way, manner) in Cornish [source].
A fjord [ˈfiːɔːd / fiˈɔɹd] is a long, narrow, deep inlet between cliffs, and was borrowed from Norwegian.
The Norwegian word fjord [fjuːr] comes from Old Norse fjǫrðr (firth, fjord), from Proto-Germanic *ferþu(z) (inlet, fjord), from Proto-Indo-European *pértus (crossing) – so the same PIE root as ford, but a different Proto-Germanic root [source].
Words from the same Proto-Germanic root include fjörður (fjord) in Icelandic, fjørður (fjord, firth) in Faroese, fjord (firth, fjord, inlet) in Danish, and firth (an arm or inlet of the sea; a river estuary) in English [source].
Meanings of port [pɔːt / poɹt] include: a place on the coast at which ships can shelter, or dock to load and unload cargo or passengers; a town or city containing such a place, and the left-hand side of a vessel, including aircraft, when one is facing the front.
It comes from Middle English port (harbour, haven), from Old English port (port, harbour, haven, town, harbour town), from Latin portus (harbour, port, haven, refuge, warehouse), from Proto-Italic *portus (harbour), from Proto-Indo-European *pértus (crossing) – so the same PIE root as ford and fjord [source].
Words from the same PIE root include porto (port, harbour) in Italian, puerto (port, harbour) in Spanish, port (port) in French, and port (harbour, port, river bank, mound, refuge, haven) in Irish, porth (port, harbour, haven, estuary, landing-place) in Welsh and پل (pul – bridge, sound post) in Persian [source].