A Conversation for The Strange Case of the Missing 'N'
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AlexAshman Posted Jun 15, 2009
Whereas in English, 'natter' is another word for chat. Weird, huh?
(Another good entry by Mr North, btw )
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Malabarista - now with added pony Posted Jun 15, 2009
Oh, no, I just realised I mistranslated!
Nattern are colubrids, not adders - so still snakes, but a different kind. Adders are Otter, as in "Kreuzotter", Vipera berus, the common viper or European adder. So the "n" has been dropped there, too! Oddly enough, otters are Otter as well.
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Icy North Posted Jun 15, 2009
Otter derives from the same root which gave us 'hydra' (the sea serpent) of course.
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Icy North Posted Jun 16, 2009
'of course' means I won't insult your intelligence by elaborating, Alex.
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AlexAshman Posted Jun 16, 2009
Ok, I've looked it up. It goes something like:
hydra (English) <-- y'dra (Greek) --> udra (Lithuanian) --> utter (Swedish) --> odder (Danish) --> otter (English)
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AlexAshman Posted Jun 16, 2009
That's what I gathered. I don't think it is any more, though.
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Malabarista - now with added pony Posted Jun 16, 2009
They're probably all busy catering to the tourist industry.
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- 1: Malabarista - now with added pony (Jun 15, 2009)
- 2: AlexAshman (Jun 15, 2009)
- 3: Malabarista - now with added pony (Jun 15, 2009)
- 4: AlexAshman (Jun 15, 2009)
- 5: Icy North (Jun 15, 2009)
- 6: AlexAshman (Jun 16, 2009)
- 7: Icy North (Jun 16, 2009)
- 8: AlexAshman (Jun 16, 2009)
- 9: Icy North (Jun 16, 2009)
- 10: AlexAshman (Jun 16, 2009)
- 11: Icy North (Jun 16, 2009)
- 12: Malabarista - now with added pony (Jun 16, 2009)
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