Category: Words and phrases

Troupers and Troopers

By Simon

One of the songs we sang last night in the ukulele group was Abba’s Super Trouper. One member of the group wondered whether trouper was spelled correctly, thinking that it should be trooper.

We discovered that they are in fact two different words:

Trouper = a member of a theatrical company (a troupe); a veteran performer; a reliable, hard-working and unselfish performer [Source].

Trooper = a soldier of private rank; a cavalry horse; charger; one who endures adversity or hardship with an attitude of stoicism and persistence [Source].

Both words come from the French word troupe (troop), from the Old French trope (band, company, troop), from the Frankish *thorp (assembly, gathering), from Proto-Germanic *þurpą (village, land, estate), from the Proto-Germanic *treb- (dwelling, settlement) [source].

However, the word trouper in the song has nothing to do with the above words – “Super Trouper” actually refers to spotlights used in stadium concerts [source]. So now the first line, “Super Trouper beams are gonna blind me”, makes sense.

This is a version of Super Trouper in Swedish:

A River of Words

By Simon

When Iceland was permanently settled from 874 AD, the settlers from Norway brought with them wives and thralls (þrælar – slaves/serfs) from Ireland. The Norwegians spoke a form of Old Norse, which developed into modern Icelandic, and borrowed a few words from the Irish.

Here are some examples:

  • á = river – from the Old Irish aub (river). The Old Norse word for river was fljót.
  • áin = (act of) driving – from Old Irish áin = (act of driving (animals etc))
  • bagall = crozier, from the Old Irish bachall (staff, crook, crozier). The Old Norse word for crozier / staff was stafr.
  • brekán = blanket, quilt, from the Old Irish breccán (speckled thing, striped or chequered stuff, plaid)
  • bjannak = blessing, from the Old Irish bennacht (blessing)
  • tarfur = bull, from the Old Irish tarb (bull). The Old Norse word for bull was þjórr.

Icelandic has also absorbed words from Latin, Greek, Middle Low German and Danish. Some of these words are no longer used, but new loanwords, mainly from Danish and English, are streaming into the language, especially in the fields of IT and medicine. One example I heard about was móment being used instead of augnablik (‘eye-blink’) for moment.

Sources: Wiktionary, Germanic.eu, eDil

Ounces, drams and pennyweights

By Simon

Weighing scales

How many drams are there in an ounce?

If you are familiar with the British Imperial System of measurement, you might know that there are 16 drams (dr) to an ounce (oz), and 16oz to a pound (lb).

There is an even smaller unit, the grain: there are 27.344 grains to a dram, 437.5 to an ounce, and 7,000 to a pound.

I knew about pounds and ounces, but hadn’t come across drams before, except as a Scottish word for a measure of whisky. Grains are also new to me as a unit of measurement.

When talking about weight, particularly people’s weight, using the imperial system, the stone is used, at least in the UK (1 stone = 14 pounds). For example, you might weigh 9 stone 7 (pounds). In the USA you would say 133 pounds, and in metric it would be 60.3kg. So if you want to weigh less, just give your weight in stones and pounds.

The next unit after the stone is hundredweight (cwt). In the UK a (long) hundredweight = 112 pounds, and in the US a (short) hundredweight = 100 pounds. Then there are 20cwt in a ton, so a UK (long) ton 2,240 pounds (160 stone), and a US (short) ton is 2,000 pounds.

The above are known as avoirdupois measurements. To weigh precious metals, troy units are used: 1 pound = 12 ounces. 1 ounce = 20 pennyweight. 1 pennyweight = 24 grains. Slightly simpler, but still more complex than the metric system.

Avoirdupois comes from the Old French avoir + du + pois (good of weight)

Troy comes from Anglo-Norman via the Middle English troye, and is possibly named after Troyes, a town in France where such weights were first used.

Pound comes from the Old English pund (a pound, weight), from the Proto-Germanic *pundą (pound, weight), from the Latin pondō (by weight), the ablative form of pondus (weight), from the Proto-Indo-European *pend-, *spend- (to pull, stretch).

Ounce comes from the Middle French once (ounce, a little bit), from the Latin uncia (1/12 part), from ūnus (one).

Dram comes from the Old French dragme, from the Late Latin dragma, from the Ancient Greek δραχμή (drakhmḗ – unit of weight, a handful), from δράσσομαι (drássomai – I hold, seize).

Source: Wiktionary

Thanks for Ellen Jovin for inspiring this post.

The Art of Lists

By Simon

List image

Lists might be considered art, and there was an exhibition of lists made by famous artists some years ago.

In Iceland art is a list – the Icelandic word of art is list. In Old Icelandic it also meant “craft, skill, adroitness, dexterity” [source].

Related words include:

  • lista- = artistic
  • listamaður = artist
  • listaverk = work of art
  • listflutningur = live performance
  • listhús = art gallery
  • listmunur = artefact
  • listvefnaður = tapestry

[Source]

Incidently, a list in Icelandic is listi or skrá. Art in Danish and Norwegian is kunst, and it’s konst in Swedish.

Ráðstefna fjöltyngdra einstaklinga

By Simon

Polyglot Conference logo in Icelandic

One of the Icelandic courses I’m doing on Memrise was made especially for people going to the Polyglot Conference in Reykjavik at the end of October.

Today’s lesson included the phrase “Hefur þú tekið þátt í Ráðstefnu fjöltyngdra einstaklinga?”, which means “Have you been to a Polyglot Conference?”, or literally “Have you taken part in a conference of multilingual individuals?”. Quite a mouthful!

  • Ráðstefna means conference, from ráð (advice, counsel, plan, council) & stefna (direction, course, strategy, policy, movement, convention, conference).
  • Fjöltyngdra is from fjöltyngdur (multilingual, polyglot), from fjöl- (many, multi, poly) & tyngdur (tongued, lingual), from tunga (tongue).
  • Einstaklinga is from einstaklingur (individual, person)

Other Icelandic phrases I’ve learnt from this course, and other courses, are slightly easier to remember and say. For example, “Hvaða tungumál talar þú?” (Which languages do you speak?”).

That’s one that’s easy to ask, but more difficult to answer. The way I answer it depends on the context. At a polyglot event, I’ll go into details about the languages I speak and how well I speak them. Elsewhere I just say something like, “I speak 5 languages fluently, more or less”, or “I speak 11 languages well or fairly well”.

In Icelandic I think I could say “Ég tala fimm tungumál, meira eða minna” (I speak five languages, more or less”) – not sure how to add fluently (fljótt).

Ambling Along

By Simon

Walking stick figure

An Icelandic word I learnt recently is (að) labba [ˈlapːa], which means ‘to walk slowly, to amble, to stroll’ [source].

Here are a few examples of usage:

  • Mér finnst gaman að labba um bæinn = I like to stroll around town
  • Ljúft finnst mér að labba á pöbbinn = I like to walk to the pub [source]
  • Ég labba ein heim eftir myrkur = I walk home alone after dark [source]

Other Icelandic words meaning to walk include:

að ganga [að ˈkauŋka] = to walk, go on foot, to climb; to move, run, go; to go around, be passed on [source].

Here are some examples:

  • að ganga á fjall = to climb a mountain
  • vagninn gengur á 20 mínútna fresti = the bus runs every 20 minutes
  • klukkan gengur = the clock is going
  • vélin gengur vel = the machine is running well
  • sagan gengur = the story is going about
  • þetta gengur vel = this is coming along fine
  • þetta gengur ekki = this won’t work, this won’t do
  • hvað gengur á? = what’s going on?

This word comes from the Old Norse ganga (to go, walk), from the Proto-Germanic *ganganą (to go, walk, step), from the Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰengʰ- (to walk, step) [source]. This is also the root of the Old English words gangan (to go, walk, turn out) and gang (a journey; way; passage), which is used in some northern dialects of English to mean to go – e.g. in Geordie gan yem = go home [source]. It’s modern meaning of a group of people probably comes from the idea of people travelling (ganging) together [source].

að troða [að ˈtʰrɔːða] = to trample, tread on, step on; to tread, walk; to stuff, fill, pack; to press forward, elbow one’s way [source].

This word comes from the Old Norse troða (to tread, walk), from the Proto-Germanic *trudaną (to tread, step on), which is also the root of the English words tread and trot.

að rölta [að ˈrœlta] = to stroll, saunter [source].

Incidentally, the English word amble comes from the Old French ambler (to walk as a horse does), from the Old Provençal amblar, from Latin ambulō (I walk) [source], and stroll comes from the German strollen, a variant of the Alemannic German strolchen, from Strolch (vagabond; rascal) [source].

Star sailors and children of the sky

By Simon

A sailing ship in space

Did you know that the word astronaut means “star sailor”?

This is something I learnt from an interesting Allusionist podcast on Technobabble.

Astronaut comes from the Ancient Greek ἄστρον (ástron – star) and ναύτης (naútēs – sailor). It first appeared as the name of a space craft in Across the Zodiac, a story written by Percy Greg in the 1880. It was used in the 1920s in writing about the possiblity of space travel, and in the U.S. space program from the 1960s [source].

Some other space-related words have a nautical roots as well, including (space)ship, mast, batton and sail.

Other words for star sailors include:

– cosmonaut, from the Russian космона́вт (kosmonávt), from the Ancient Greek κόσμος (kósmos – universe) &+ -naut [source]
– taikonaut, from the Chinese 太空 (tàikōng – space) +‎ -naut [source]
– spationaut, from spatio (space) + -naut [source]

Many other languages use one or other of these words. Here are some exceptions:

– In Chinese an astronaut is either 太空人 (tài​kōng​rén – “space person”), 航天員 (háng​tiān​yuán – “boat sky personnel”), or 宇航员 [宇航員] (yǔhángyuán – “universe boat personnel”) [source].

– In Icelandic an astronaut is a geimfari, from geimur (space) + -fari (traveler) [source].

– In Welsh an astronaut is a gofodwr, from gofod (space) + gŵr (man).

– In Swahili an astronaut is a mwanaanga, from mwana (child) +‎ anga (sky) [source]

Are there interesting words for astronauts in other languages?

Project-based learning

By Simon

When learning languages I use a variety of tools. At the moment I’m using Duolingo and Memrise, and also Colloquial Icelandic. I like the way Duolingo puts words in different contexts and tests you in different ways. I like the way Memrise gives you the option to create your own memory hooks, and the conversations and grammar notes in Colloquial courses are useful.

To practise my speaking and writing, I find projects helpful. For example, I might decide to write a blog post, conversation, story, song or poem in a language I’m learning, or to write about some aspect of that language – words, idioms, grammar, etc. The process of doing this helps me learn new vocabulary and grammar, and it tends to stick if I find it interesting and/or amusing.

So today I will write about the Swedish word snart, which means ‘soon, shortly, any time soon, anon’. Here are some examples of use:

– så snart som möjligt = as quickly as possible
– det snart är jul = the run-up to Christmas
– för snart ett år = nearly a year ago
– vi måste göra det snart = we have to do it soon; we must act quickly

Related expressions include:

– snar = early, ready, quick, swift
– inom kort = shortly, before long
– om en stund = in a while
– strax = soon, close, directly

Snart comes from the Old Norse snart (quickly). Danish and Norwegian have the same word with the same meanings, and in Icelandic there are snar (quick, swift, fast) and snarlega (quickly, fast).

Sources: bab.la, Wiktionary and The Old Norse World

Do you set yourself projects or tasks when learning languages, or other things?

Do you find it useful?

Running like a …?

By Simon

A photo of a tap

If you see or heard the phrase “running like a”, what would you expect to the next word to be?

If you’re from the UK you might say “tap” – that’s certainly what I would expect to come next here.

A tap in this context refers to “A device by which a flow of liquid or gas from a pipe or container can be controlled” [source].

Such devices are commonly known as faucets in the USA [source].

What about in other English-speaking countries?

I picked a cold this week, and yesterday my nose was running like a tap, which is why I decided to blog about this expression. I wondered if people talk about things ‘running like a faucet’ in the USA, and if not, what expression they use.

If you Google “running like a”, the top results (at the time of writing) are “running like a Kenyan on speed”, “running like a girl” and “running like a dog”.

A Telling Chat

By Simon

In interesting word I learnt recently in Icelandic is spjall [ˈspjatl̥], which means chat, converstation, talk or gossip.

It comes from the Old Norse spjall [ˈspjɑlː] (saying, tale, words, tales, tidings); from Proto-Germanic *spellą (news, message, tale, story), from the Proto-Indo-European *spel- (to tell).

A related word is spjalla, which means ‘to converse, to chat’. You could use it like this, I think,

– Ég er að spjalla á íslensku = I am chatting in Icelandic.

The Proto-Indo-European *spel- is also the root of the English word spell, the German -spiel in Beispiel (example – literally “by talk”) There were similar words in Old English: bīspel (proverb, pattern, example), and Scots: byspel (byword, rarety, outcast).

The German word spielen comes from a different root: the Proto-Germanic *spilōną (to play, to dance, to move), from *spilą (game, play, dance).

Icelandic words with related meanings include:

– tal = speech, conversation
– tala = to talk, to speak
– talmál = spoken language
– talsháttur = phrase, idiom
– talsmaður = advocte, spokesperson
– talsmát = manner of speaking, expression
– ræða = speech, address; to speak, talk, discuss
– ræðinn = talkative

Sources: Wiktionary, Íslensk – ensk orðabók / Concise Icelandic – English Dictionary