Author: Simon

I am a linguist, web developer and musician. I live in Bangor in Wales and run Omniglot - the online encyclopedia of writing systems and languages, as well as making the Radio Omniglot Podcast.

Up North & Out West

By Simon

Directions

This week I learnt some interesting weather-related phrases in Swedish on Memrise, including norrut (up north / northward), söderut (down south / southward), österut (out east / eastward) and västerut (out west / westward).

Examples of how they are used include:

  • Upproret blir mer allmänt och går norrut = The rising is spreading and moving northwards
  • Enandet, som skedde i rätt tid, jämnar vägen för utvidgningen österut = This prompt agreement paves the way to enlargement eastward
  • Det blir regn västerut = There will be rain out west
  • Det klarnar nog upp söderut = It’ll probably clear up down south

Sources: bab.la, Memrise

In Swedish they all have the ut (out) in them, so more literal translations of norrut and söderut would be “out north” and “out south”, or even “north out” and “south out”.

These sound wrong in English, at least to my ears. To me north is up and south is down, so it makes sense to say up north and down south, although I’m not sure why we say out east/west. Does anybody know? Are there other ways to refer to directions?

In Irish, and other Gaelic languages, the words for directions change depending on whether you’re in the north, going north, coming from the north, and so on. For example:

  • tuaisceart = north, northern, ó thuaidh = north of / going north, aduaigh = from the north
  • deisceart = south, southern, ó dheas = south of / going south, aneas = from the south

More details

Do you scurryfunge?

By Simon

Scurryfunge definition

If someone accused you of scurryfunging, would you have any idea what they were talking about?

Scurryfunge is apparently an American dialect word meaning cleaning and tidying your house frantically before visitors arrive. That is according to the podcast Something Rhymes with Purple, which I discovered today. It’s a podcast about words and language by Gyles Brandreth and Susie Dent.

According to Definition Of, scurryfunge is an Old English word meaning “to rush around cleaning when company is on their way over”.

According to the Urban Dictionary, scurryfunge means “A hasty tidying of the house between the time you see a neighbor and the time he/she knocks on the door”, and comes from John Gould’s Maine Lingo: Boiled Owls, Billdads, and Wazzats, 1975.

According to Haggard Hawks, scurryfunge means “to hastily tidy a house”. It first appeared in written English in the late 18th century, and originally meant to beat or lash, and later to rub or scrub clean. By the early 20th century it was only used in a few regional dialects, and the meaning had changed a bit.

According to Wordfoolery, back in the 19th century scurryfunge meant “to scour for marine curiosities”, and is still used in Newfoundland.

According to Dictionary of Newfoundland English, scurryfunge means “to lash tightly; to do anything briskly; to work or walk hurriedly; to scrounge, cadge or wheedle; to clean thoroughly, scour; to scold, reprove”.

So now we know what it means, do you scurryfunge?

I do sometimes when I’m expecting visitors, but my house is usually reasonably tidy. Or at least any mess is confined to certain areas.

Are there similar words in other languages?

Spread

By Simon

Imagine you’re driving through the English countryside and you get a bit lost. You might spread out a map to find out where you are, and when you reach your destination, you might decide to have a picnic, or a nice spread (meal).

After spreading out a rug, or even a bedspread, on the ground to sit on, you spread your legs a bit, then start spreading butter, cheese spread and other things on bread to make sandwiches.

After your picnic, maybe you and your companions spread out to explore the area. As you do so, you notice a farmer spreading muck on a nearby field, and another spreading seeds. You think they are growing genetically modified crops, and start spreading rumours about this. Before you know it the rumours turn into a double-page spread in the local newspaper, and you end up spreading fear and confusion.

The word spead can obviously be used in a variety of contexts and has various meanings. In French, however, there is a different word for most of these meanings:

  • étendre = to spread / open out (a towel, cloth, map)
  • écarter = to spread / strech out (arms, hands, legs)
  • étaler = to spread (butter, jam)
  • répandre = to spread (rumour, lies, fear, confusion, fertilizer)
  • propager = to spread (disease, infection)
  • disséminer = to spread (pollen, seeds)
  • échelonner = to spread (repayments)
  • répartir = to spread (wealth, workload)
  • se disperser = to spread out
  • le fromage à tartiner = cheese spread
  • le chocolat à tartiner = chocolate spread
  • une double page = a double-page spread
  • un repas = a spread (meal)
  • le couvre-lit = bedspread

Source: Reverso

Oxbows and Fossils

By Simon

On an episode of the Talk the Talk podcast that I listened to today, they discuss fossil words or, as presenter Daniel Midgely calls them, oxbows, which is a rather poetic and fitting name from them.

An oxbow lake is a part of a river that has got cut off from the main stream due to the changing course of the river, and a fossil word or oxbow is one that’s only used in one or two expressions, and is no longer part of the main stream language.

Oxbows

Some examples they gave include kith and kin, to and fro, and akimbo, as in arms/legs akimbo.

Other examples of fossil words / oxbows include:

  • by dint of = because of, by means of – dint is an old word for a blow or stroke, force, power, or the mark left by a blow
  • in high dudgeon = indignant and enraged – dudgeon possibly comes from the Welsh dygen (anger, sad, grievous, painful, serious). A related words is the old Scots word humdudgeon, meaning an unnecessary outcry of complaint, or an imaginary illness
  • in fine fettle = in good condition, energetic – fettle is nothern English dialect word meaning one’s physical condition or mental state.
  • the whole shebang = everything, the entire thing – shebang might come from the French chabane (hut, cabin), or from the Hiberno-English shebeen (a cabin where unlicensed liquor is sold and drunk), from the Irish síbín (illicit whiskey).

Do you know others in English or other languages?

Time is pouring

By Simon

This week I learnt the Russian expression до сих пор ― (do sikh por), which means still, hitherto, up to now, thus far, or literally “until this time”.

The пор comes from пора (pora – time, season, weather, period), which appears in such phrases as:

  • пора́ идти́ (pora idti) = it’s time to go
  • в са́мую по́ру (v samuju poru) = in the nick of time
  • до каки́х пор? (do kakikh por?) = how long?
  • с каки́х пор? (s kakikh por?) = since when?
  • до тех пор, пока́ (do tekh por, poka) = so long as
  • с тех пор, как (s tekh por, kak) = ever since
  • на пе́рвых пора́х (na pervykh porakh) = at first

Source: Wiktionary

It’s interesting that пора means both time and weather – some other languages also have one word for both: temps in French, amzer in Breton, aimsir in Irish. Do you know of others?

Treading in Spinach

By Simon

Language quiz image

A few posts ago I wrote about an interesting Swedish idiom – trampa i klaveret – to make a social mistake, put one’s foot in it, or literally “to step heavily on the accordion”.

Today I learnt the Danish equivalent – træde i spinaten (“to tread in the spinach”). For example, jeg har virkelig trådt i spinaten (“I have really trod in the spinach”) = I really put my foot in it.

Accoriding to Den Danske Ordbog, træde i spinaten means “utilsigtet sige eller gøre noget dumt” (to accidentally say or do something stupid).

Another version is træde/trampe i spinatbedet (“tread/tramp in the spinach bed”) [source].

Then there’s the spinatfugl or “spinach bird”, which is apparently a person who writes reviews or other cultural material in a newspaper without a journalistic background [source].

Does anybody know why such a person is known as a spinach bird?

The word spinach comes from the Middle English spinach, from Anglo-Norman spinache, from the Old French espinoche, from the Old Occitan espinarc, from the Arabic إِسْفَانَاخ‎ (ʾisfānāḵ), from the Persian اسپناخ‎ (ispanâx).

Apparently spinach cinema refers to “Movies that are not very exciting or interesting, but that one feels one must see because they are educational or otherwise uplifting.” [source]

Are there any interesting spinach or other vegetable-related idioms in other languages?