h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Experience tells me we can stand to have two threads of thought running here, and I really do want to also ask if someone can show me any differences in the usages of 'previous' and 'presumptuous.
peace
jwf

"And the Spanish! Phhhtt! How many words of theirs have we adopted?
Besides quixotic."

Colorado, Nevada, Hispaniola, Armada (and one we should never forget) inquisiciòn.

Just to assuage your prejudices, jwf, I can assure you that stiletto does come from Italy, as do dagger, brigand, bandit, ruffian, mountebank, patsy, contraband,arsenal, salvo, harangue, fascism, ghetto, bordello, graffiti and quarantine .

Spanish has probably contributed more words, particularly to American English, but most of them aren't much fun because they're obviously Spanish: guerrilla, mosquito, embargo, etc. Cowboys did pretty well out of Spanish, acquiring the likes of hoosegow, calaboose, buckaroo, ranch, stampede and lariat. Other crypto-Hispanicisms that spring to mind are blue-blood, cockroach, anchovy, gambit, alligator, stevedore, platinum, filibuster and breeze.

As regards the usage of 'previous' and 'presumptuous', while it might be useful, you won't find a 'Presumptuous posting' button on H2G2 .

Irish people use "previous" occasionally to mean "premature", as in "That was a bit previous!" when someone does something too early. This is usually used in a jocular manner.

I've heard "previous to" meaning "before". Previous to that, he was a journalist. The normal usage would be as an adjective. The present president is a woman. The previous one was also a woman.

I wonder if there are any languages that haven't contirbuted to English?

I'd guess the Xosa click language of the Kalahari bushmen has made very little contribution to the english language. Many of the consonants in this language are unpronounceable by English speakers, consisting of clicks and pops made with the tongue and lips. The X in the name Xosa is in fact a tongue click. I can make the click but find it impossible to do while speaking a word.

And Spanish brought the Londoner Elephant and Castle. I think the cowboy did better.

The one Spanish word that always springs to mind is "macho". And, having lived there for a year, I know why.

If we can get three threads running together here, we could plait them !!

I would like to intimate to my intermates that the resurrection men have dug up something from the beginning of September to grace the end of my home page. Can British English be far behind? Well, yes, probablyWe still have time to get the sequel to surpass the originasl . So as a third thread for Nikki's plait I give you this from my professional reading: a frequency list for the four forms [cat,cats,d*g and d*gs] shows that [the unmentionable animals] are mentioned about twice as often as cats in written English and the singular form is about twice as common as the plural form in both cases.
Also the derivation of 'cat' is curious. All agreed on Anglo-Saxon catte, but before that? The authorities seem to be split between Gaelic and North African (Semitic) I just thought you'd like to know that even when I'm not here, you are never far from my thoughts

My dictionary says that cat comes from Anglo-Saxon catt which probably comes from Latin cattus. Why probably? Isn't it a fairly obvious connection?

And whats the Gaelic option then? My hazy memories of watching Gaelic kiddies TV (when its a wet holiday morning north of the border there ain't really much else to do) indicates that it sounds very similar. Ah, if only I could remember the theme tune to Padraig Post.

The Gaelic for cat is cat, pronounced "coth". That doesn't tell us very much about whether the Anglo-Saxon word came from it or the other way around.

Pussy?

On all 3 subjects:
1). I very often hear 'previous' used in the sense of presumptuous on Coronation Street. Meaning someone 'assumes' or 'presumes' too much and expects privileges or favours or intimacies in an insensitive and (especially) premature way. I just wondered if there were any subtle rules or observations to distinguish between someone's behaviour being described as presumptuous or previous, but I guess it's an Irish usage (Gnomon) that found its way to the Northwest.

1-a.) Then again, I never really understood the difference between presuming and assuming. eg: Lets say a new neighbour drops in and wants to use my tools and ends up staying for dinner, helping themselves to drinks and calling me 'Johnny' or 'JohnBoy' and slapping me heartily on the back as if we'd been long time buddies. Not that I am an unfriendly guy, but you know the kind of thing where people 'presume' upon you, or 'assume' certain things or act a bit 'previous'.

2.) Mexican/American Spanish adoptions are indeed manifold from adobe to taco.
But in 'real' English I figured it would be less visible. Certainly in a cultural sense there has always been a built-in prejudice from the Armada to Fawlty Towers.
There are hundreds of French things like f-doors, f-cooking, f-bread, f-wines, f-kisses, f-cuffs... frenching, frenched...
And the same with the Dutch in d-doors, d-ovens, d-treats, d-chocolate, d-tilt (a camera move), d-dates... to be 'in Dutch'...
But it seems at first glance the only Spanish items ever assimilated culturally by the English were Don Quixote, spanish fly and Picasso and the jury's still out on the last two. Everything else is dag-otrash or Mexican/American-cowboyesque.

3.) Do plait and braid mean the same thing, generally, or is there some difference in the way the strands are intertwined?

4.) And how is everyone today?

~jwf~

Thank goodness I know how to plait 4 threads !!

I may be wrong, but I beleive we covered the presume/assume in a previous existence ... but I can't remember the out come ... I think it was Brit Eng Thread 5, OED 1

When I was a lad, the plain word 'Spanish' was used in the north of England to refer to certain kinds of licorice confectionery.

Presume/assume rings a bell with me, too.

"John boy"?

"JOHN BOY?"

Don't make me laugh

I never worried about cat because it's chat in French, Katze in German (the male version is Kater which also means a hangover), gato in Spanish so I thought we were in good company with cat. I thought that you-know-what was one of the words that hadn't been explained. Excuse me rambling - I've got myself a bit drunk tonight.... No husband to share the whisky bottle with

Cattus????
The latin for cat is Felix.

Interestingly the Scots clan Chattan's motto is "Touch not the catte but the glove". "But" meaning "without" in older language version.
Cat is derived from the old celtic language. Wildcats were a type of small Lynx, and were widespread throughout Europe. They were thought to be prophetic animals. (Prophecies rendered under a especially nasty form of ritual torture).

Respect your cat - its suffered!

1) I threw the cat among the pigeons because I had just read that the origins were "probably not Indo European"
2) The London docks were got rid of partly because of "Spanish customs" (which were no longer possible after containerisation.) Also Spanish onions, siesta,fiesta,flamenco,castanets could be used in an English sentence without a gloss
3)I thought "plait" was three strands only and that "braid" was any number, but research reveals that "braid" in British English is twisted rather than plaited (like the cords used as decoration on uniforms) Further "braid" is the American, and "plait" is the British.Since the Chinese no longer wear pigtails, no-one seems to use the word "queue" for this. [ I must say Nikki is jolly clever. I've just wasted ten mintes trying to get four strands of wool into "a decorative trimming" No success at all]