#glottonautics

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On the etymology of dog

[...]from Old English dogga, docga, of uncertain origin. [...]Another proposal is that it derives from Proto-West Germanic *dugan (“to be suitable”), the origin of Old English dugan (“to be good, worthy, useful”), English dow, German taugen. The theory goes that it could have been an epithet for dogs, commonly used by children, meaning "good/useful animal.".

I hope this is true, because it would mean that 'dog' originally derives from "good boy".

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snakefarm (verb)

To create more instances of a problem in order to collect rewards for subsequently fixing those problems.

From a possibly-apocryphal story of the British Raj posting bounties for killed snakes, which Indian peasants responded to by creating snake farms, breeding the snakes to produce a steady supply of adult snakes they could kill and turn in for the reward. Since some snakes escaped captivity, the snake problem did not improve and may have even gotten worse.

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Q: Why can you have a flock of sheep, or a flock of any kind of birds, but no other animals, not even goats?

A: We just stopped saying 'flock of horses/pigs/rabbits' for some reason, in the last century.

Doesn’t answer why a flock is birds or farm animals, not other animals. Flock of antelope? Flock of elephants? Heck, flock of bats?

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e: Removes the top item as a sentence i: Removes the top item as a sentence introducing detail (':') o: Removes the top item as a question u: Removes the top item as an exclamation strunh: Reminds the listener of how deep his stack should be. (The top item must be a numeral)

the conlang Frith

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The Language of Cene /ˈɕin/

ɾɑsh də ɾuʁuə jəɾ dəsh ʒɑnœrɑwə ɾɑsh nikə dəsh diʎish əwɑvø ʁɛːc ɾɑjɔ …and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind… [This is an OOC page] Pronunciation: /ɾɑʃ də ˈɾuʁuə jəɾ dəʃ...

I used Vulgar to make a Cenemi language and learned some things about Cene therefrom.

Also, @coloursofthenight now has a name: Chakod Meiketen

Meiketen is a chosen-surname; his parents Meikel and Eten combined their names via the shared syllable (VlV > VtV in Cenemi) as a mixed matro/patronymic to give their kids. Choosing a surname to name the marriage, made from the two spouses given names and occasionally surnames, is standard; Meiketen is on the short side.

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Across many languages.

Some of these are comedy gold. My personal favorites:

Cantonese: 呢啲係雞腸呀。: “These are chicken intestines.”

German: Ich verstehe nur Bahnhof.: “I understand only ‘Train station’“                 Fachchinesisch: “Chinese technical jargon”

Icelandic: Hrognamál: “Fish-egg language”

Latvian Tā man ir ķīniešu ābece: “This is Chinese alphabet book to me” (I am seriously tempted to memorize “Ich verstehe nur Bahnhof” and use it regularly.)

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"The farmers in the valley grew potatoes, peanuts, and bored."

Zeugma are great.

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If you've read Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, I mean 'deadheading'

I guess I mean deadheading even if you haven't, but.

things that are fun: sentences where you don’t even need to fill in an entire clause because it’s implied from just the conjunction