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fun table of idiosyncratic frenchisms in english

  Type Example What’s odd (by English standards) Post-posed adjective attorney general → attorneys-general Adjective follows noun; plural on head noun Post-posed adjective court martial → courts martial Same pattern Post-posed adjective heir apparent → heirs apparent Looks like two nouns, isn’t Post-posed adjective secretary general → secretaries-general Office titles preserve French syntax Fixed phrase body politic Adjective after noun, no plural logic Legal noun phrase fee simple Adjective order frozen Adjective stack letters patent Plural noun + singular adjective Noun–noun compound notary public Adjective behaves like a noun Plural irregularity barracks / headquarters Singular/plural identical (French influence + usage) Gender fossil blond / blonde Gender marking retained in spelling Register split ask vs inquire Germanic plain vs French formal Verb pair buy vs purchase Same meaning, different social register Doublet aid / help , cease / stop Parallel vocab layers Stress ...
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Comparing Sturluson, Tolkien, Rowling

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  Tolkien did not merely borrow themes from Old Norse material; he reused names, roles, and mythic structures, often with only minimal adaptation. Below is a non-exhaustive but solidly attested list of Middle-earth characters and places that appear in name or recognisable form in Old Norse sources, especially those attributed to Snorri Sturluson. Core textual source Prose Edda (c. 1220), especially Gylfaginning and Skáldskaparmál Supplemented by the Poetic Edda (Codex Regius) Tolkien explicitly acknowledged these texts and taught them professionally. Direct name borrowings (near-identical) Dwarves (this is the big one) Almost all of Tolkien’s dwarf-names come directly from the Völuspá dwarf-catalogue. Tolkien Old Norse source Gimli Gimli – a heavenly hall in Gylfaginning Thorin Þorinn Balin Balinn Dwalin Dvalinn Fíli Fíli Kíli Kíli Bifur Bíforr Bofur Báfurr Bombur Bomburr Óin Óinn Glóin Glóinn Tolkien did not hide this; he said explicitly that he lifted the...
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A theory that 'seven' isn't PIE but semitic. Interesting.

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 The video is at:  https://youtube.com/shorts/VMp8uLXpnk8
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Horse, Car, Cursor, Courier... same thing

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The primary sense of all these words (horse, car, cursor, etc) is to run. HRS/KRS. Latin: curro, I run. Cursor: one who runs. Cursive: running writing. Courier: person who runs with something. Car: a thing that runs. Once it goes north the K becomes an H as per Grimm's law, e.g. Lating Cardio (heart), Canem (Hound), Cent (Hundred), etc. So, Hrs is from Krs, ie Horse is from Curs* (to run). 
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Fun etymology of Hrathi/Fart = the scandinavian words for speed.

  fart is related (in this context) to english fare, as in taxi fare, farewell, etc., meaning to go. Icelandic, hrathi, is related directly to english 'rather'. In old english, 'rather' meant 'i'd sooner/.faster', e.g. 'i'd sooner eat a pencil', meaning, 'i'd faster or more quickly decide to eat a pencil'. Hence, rather, in english, came to mean, a preferred alternative, rather than 'faster'. Another interesting instance of 'rather' is the name Hrothgar in the poem Beowulf. It means 'Fast Spear', compare english 'rather gore', where gore means to be speared by a bull. Hrothgar survives in modern English as ROGER. Which hilariously in british slang means to... spear someone... with something. As in "give someone a good rogering". Show less
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Etymology of Work vs Arbeit, Travail, etc. A chat with ChatGPT

Hi. give me the name of a german job/career which has a ridculously large number of syllables, which has a short english equivalent. e.g. secretary / schreibertelefonantworterfraumensch or something like that. ChatGPT said: A classic example (though slightly tongue-in-cheek) is: "Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz" (63 letters, ~20 syllables) Literal: "Beef labeling regulation & delegation law" English equivalent: "labelling law" or even just "regulation" For an actual job title, consider: "Fachkraft für Arbeitssicherheit" (≈11 syllables) English: "Safety officer" Or this exaggerated (but plausible) creation: "Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän" (≈16 syllables) English: "ship captain" Want a real but bureaucratically ridiculous one? Try: "Versicherungsleistungsabrechnungsbearbeiter" = insurance claim processor Would you like more genuine o...
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