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Fornicating Under Consent of King

literaryreview.co.uk

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Re: Fornicating Under Consent of King

#71

Post by mc32 »

Bjartr wrote: post #52
ben_w wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The one that gets to me is that the anglosphere is still calling a fairly common crop [cooking product] “rapeseed [oil]”. And why is that etymologically connected to the latin for ‘turnip’? This seems as strange now as the fact “mincemeat” (no space) in mince pies is vegetarian (the answer: because “meat” used to mean any food not just animal flesh, but it’s still strange to see that today).

Rapeseed oil is usually referred to as canola oil these days.

I thought that was Canadians calling it Canadian oil.

Re: Fornicating Under Consent of King

#72

Post by mc32 »

Balarny wrote: post #54
Bjartr wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rapeseed oil is usually referred to as canola oil these days.

In the US, maybe. In the UK it's usually called what it is, or the euphemism "vegetable oil". Often next to each other on the shelf.

Often vegetable oil can mean cottonseed out which is to be avoided due to heavy pesticide use on the crops. Do they say anyhow.

Re: Fornicating Under Consent of King

#73

Post by dhosek »

kenneth wrote: post #32
dhosek wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking of misread signs, there's a Chinese restaurant on San Vicente in Los Angeles named Hunan Taste. More than one person has mistaken that first n for an m.

Hunan is a province of China known for delicious and incredibly spicy food.

Yes, I'm somehow¹ more aware of these things than most Americans. It's mostly a typographical problem. The lettering choice on the sign tends to make it easy to see an n as an m. Other restaurants offering Hunan cuisine don't seem to elicit the same reaction anywhere near as much (or maybe it's just Hunan Taste's location at a well-trafficked intersection).

1. My brain is full of all sorts of random knowledge with no good explanation for how it got there, like names of Chinese provinces or how to conjugate French verbs.

Re: Fornicating Under Consent of King

#74

Post by overkalix »

paleotrope wrote: post #5
thaumasiotes wrote: post #2

> the word whose usage is considered so offensive that it has caused the decline of its unfortunate near-homophone ‘niggardly’ That's not exactly a unique phenomenon. For example, it's how "rabbit" replaced "coney".

Which is funny because coney used to be pronounced more like cunny and was deliberately pronounced coney to get away from the vulgar associations.

My 2c as a catalan speaker. Apparently cunt is related to the latin "cunnus" (wedge). We also have a vulgar word related to cunnus for vagina, "cony". Its use is not as offensive as cunt, but it is up there with "puta" (whore) as the worst things you could say to a woman. However "cony" is also used in a sexual context: "Et vull menjar el cony" could be translated to "I want to eat your pussy".

Of course we have other obscene words for vagina. One of them is "conill" (rabbit), which is apparently related to "cunniculus" (burrow). The analogy between the action of the animal when hiding and the sexual act seems clear, but however this one is almost exclusively used in descriptive contexts: "L'hi he vist el conill", "I've seen her pussy".

"Conill" is also used more innocently. A young girl (~4yo) who is playing and running around naked could be affectionately called by female relatives "conillet". "Ai el conillet!" as in "oh, the little rabbit!". The goal here, I believe, seems to be not really shaming her to get dressed, but to make her aware that she is naked.

The animal analogy (?) would be similar to that of beaver, I suppose. But of course no mother would call her naked girl little beaver.

Maybe it's just me, but I find it fascinating how languages converge and diverge, and how we find hilarious and imaginative ways to describe the world around us.

Re: Fornicating Under Consent of King

#75

Post by el-salvador »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #45
radarsat1 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even in Dutch they use the word konijn, I actually had no idea that "coney" was an English cognate for that word until reading this thread, I love learning these associations as making connections like this really helps in learning new languages. As an aside, Spain itself was named after rabbits, which I find hilarious: http://www.ctspanish.com/rabbits.htm

> in Dutch they use the word konijn, I actually had no idea that "coney" was an English cognate for that word This is of limited value in learning English; at least in America, I wouldn't expect the man on the street to know the word at all.

Same here.

I knew about Coney Island but I had never made the connection between Coney and Rabbit, I thought it was just a name.

Curiously there is another Isla Conejo / Rabbit Island near here too.

From Wikipedia:

It may be because when the Dutch people arrived in New Netherland, this island had many rabbits, so they named it 'Konijn Island', which became 'Coney Island', using the archaic term for rabbit in English.

Re: Fornicating Under Consent of King

#76

Post by nescioquid »

andrewzah wrote: post #21

For anyone who finds words and etymology fascinating, I highly recommend John McWhorter's podcast, Lexicon Valley.

I've really enjoyed the odd essay/opinion piece and Teaching Company lecture series by McWhorter. I've heard people rave about the podcast, so I gave it a go.

I felt badly for the fellow, however, after listening to about half an episode of the podcast. It seemed worse than AM talk radio in terms of commercials, which left me with the impression that the guy really needed the money.

That was some time ago, though. I just scanned a recent episode and it looks like there are only four commercial breaks in 40 minutes which is not quite as excessive as I recollected. If that's not something that bothers you, give it a listen.

Re: Fornicating Under Consent of King

#77

Post by etblg »

fenomas wrote: post #67
area51org wrote: post #3

It's amazing how many people still fall for the 'fuck-as-acronym' myths. I've literally argued with people convinced that FUCK stands for Fornication Under Consent of the King, or (as Van Halen apparently believed) For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge. No, none of the above. Nope.

There used to be a great column in alt-weeklies called The Word Detective, that dealt with tons of these I've the years (to insure promptness, port out starboard home, etc). The author (one Evan Morris) always reminded people that acronyms were extremely rare before about WW2, and so acronym etymologies for old words are virtually always made up (Morris blamed tour guides for keeping them circulating).

> The author (one Evan Morris) always reminded people that acronyms were extremely rare before about WW2

Why is that?

Re: Fornicating Under Consent of King

#78

Post by rusk »

dorchadas wrote: post #69
gutta-percha wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rabbits were introduced to Ireland, so the word for them was probably borrowed from English or French.

Yeah, it was borrowed from Anglo-Norman.

Which is about as close to modern English as modern Irish is.

Re: Fornicating Under Consent of King

#79

Post by treeman79 »

dhosek wrote: post #10
mbg721 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Knowing the more likely etymology, it's a little awkward when I see the billboards for a dentist in my area named Dr. Ficker.

Speaking of misread signs, there's a Chinese restaurant on San Vicente in Los Angeles named Hunan Taste. More than one person has mistaken that first n for an m.

In Southern California there was brand new restaurant with a very expensive neon sign called “Thai Porn”

A week later a new equally expensive sign was being installed with the less provocative “Thai Food”

Re: Fornicating Under Consent of King

#80

Post by andrewzah »

nescioquid wrote: post #76
andrewzah wrote: post #21

For anyone who finds words and etymology fascinating, I highly recommend John McWhorter's podcast, Lexicon Valley.

I've really enjoyed the odd essay/opinion piece and Teaching Company lecture series by McWhorter. I've heard people rave about the podcast, so I gave it a go. I felt badly for the fellow, however, after listening to about half an episode of the podcast. It seemed worse than AM talk radio in terms of commercials, which left me with the impression that the guy really needed the money. That was some time ago, though. I…

To be honest I haven't really noticed that much, as I just scrub through all commercials with my players.
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