The reverse phenomenon occurs in Swedish. Maybe you are familiar with the cartoon character Andy Capp, always wearing a characteristic cap. A similar thing is called a "keps" in Swedish.
Another case is interesting in that English borrowed a word from Swedish - and returned it! A cookie is a "kaka". We now still have the "kaka", but also "kex"; sing. = plur. (<cakes) for biscuits (crackers).
We also lent the woman’s name Helga to the Russians. They changed it to Olga, and we got it back in that shape.
how odd Anders, in my Grandmother’s vocabulary Kaka wasn’t cookie at all and she was 1st generation Swedish. Kaka in our home at least wasn’t anything edible......altho’ it might once have been a cookie.
Katy
probably still spaced out according to Larry ::)
We seem to be approaching cacography… Which, however, really means just bad handwriting. Cacology isn’t the science of words derived from the Greek kakós ‘bad’, but a improper selection of words, b bad pronunciation.
The noun "kaka" has (and has had) very few Swedish meanings other than different edibles. Exceptions are only names for ingots in metallurgy and similar technical usages, and bikaka ‘honeycomb’. The plural kakur dates back to 1533, the modern plural kakor first appeared in the 1541 Bible.
There is, however, a rare word kacka, that is, both a’s are short, meaning ‘defecate’. Nowadays it is probably only used jokingly and/or in an archaistic sense.
There is, however, a rare word kacka, that is, both a’s are short, meaning ‘defecate’. Nowadays it is probably only used jokingly and/or in an archaistic sense.
otherwise known as homo sap.sap. as telling a name as can be.
note:We are alone, absolutely alone on this chance
planet: and, amid all the forms of life that
surround us, not one, excepting the dog, has made an
alliance with us.
-- Maurice Maeterlinck
otherwise known as homo sap.sap. as telling a name as can be.
note:We are alone, absolutely alone on this chance
planet: and, amid all the forms of life that
surround us, not one, excepting the dog, has made an
alliance with us.
-- Maurice Maeterlinck
And he won a Nobel Prize in literature for this !!!
Speaking as an evolutionary scientist - VERY few people accept Homo sapiens sapiens, the fossil distinction is negligible at very best, and when a distinction is required the term archaic is utilised. To utilise Homo sapiens sapiens forces the use of Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, and that is ridiculous! - in addition the correct format is Capitalisation down to the spieces level which is NOT capitalised. So our species then, in the Linnaean system, will be Eukarya Animalia Chordata Vertebrata Mammalia Primates Hominidae Homo sapiens. - Have Fun. :)
Recently I’ve read a couple of times about Jonny Wilkinson (captain of the England rugby team) having a bruised bicep. Bicep? Seems like we English speakers abhor singular words which end in consonant-s, and try to make them plurals.
Distinguished athletes notwithstanding, brave Jonah, it will come as no surprise to hear one of our brilliant, esteemed oncologists identify singular polyps by the same back-formation (or better yet deformation): "polyp"! Even in medical terminology--alas, so it would seem--both English & scientific Latin (i.e. with Greek antecedents) can really sustain a most turpacious "bruising" as such.
one of our brilliant, esteemed oncologists identify singular polyps by the same back-formation (or better yet deformation): "polyp"!
Singular vs. plural is fun. In Swedish, we have räls from ‘rails’, and most everybody sees it as a singular noun. Only railway professionals and translators use räl in the singular. Same for keps, the headgear favoured by Andy Capp but no singular form in use. A third one is the Scandinavian singular kaka, kake, kage which was temporarlily loaned to English and then returned as ‘cookies’ to make a Swedish kex (IPA [keks]).
My favourite is the somewhere found Sw. puttisar, referring to putto in the plural. So somebody took the putto, in the Italian plural, added the English s for more plural, and crowned with the Swedish plural -ar. Three or more plurals elsewhere, anyone?
I don’t react unfavourably towards the polyp (as long as I’m spared of them myself). I interpret the word as a convenient abbreviation of the Greek poly-p(ous).
My trusty ole Universal Dictionary of the English Language has polyp - polyps for the animal(s) and polypus - polypi for the tumour and the polyp(s). Considering all the mis- and non-standard-spellings we encounter, I’d say that this case is one of the least problematic.
So try and indulge me here, brer Anders, for I shall tell all humanity the whole truth about being a lousy, Gastarbeiter Swede, living in any strange hinterland as shamelessly enamoured of its superimposed, Anglo-American heritage upon everyone else. Nor do I expect my very own, Stedman’s med. dictionary to contribute much either, regarding the derivation & orthography of enigmatic polyps. Nay indeed, especially when the real money lies in visual recognition & taxonomic identification of said outgrowth, while a profound education in classical studies & history of the English language serves only to detract from so many, tyrannical sanctions of blind professionalism and coincidentally, the wretched attainment of that solitary, medical degree--whoooa, Nelly!
!!!
