Is that anything like Dire Rear?
During the filming of The Blues Brothers John Landis put Carrie Fisher in charge of keeping John Belushi away from the cocaine.
Which she did by snorting it all herself.
About the words Yearn and Yen… To have a yen for something is a yearning for it, right? Yearn, yen, same word, really, yeah? Same etymology?
Well no, it would seem. I’m sure there will be dissenting views out there, but there seems to be a general agreement that their origins are very different. For no other reason than convenience, I’m using Merriam Webster as reference.
Yearn: History and Etymology for yearn
Middle English yernen , from Old English giernan ; akin to Old High German gerōn to desire, Latin hortari to urge, encourage, Greek chairein to rejoice
Yen: History and Etymology for yen
[snip]
obsolete English argot yen-yen craving for opium, from Chin (Guangdong) yīn-yáhn , from yīn opium + yáhn craving
How 'bout that?
j
Source cited as MW request:
“Yearn.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster, Yearn Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster. Accessed 5 Jan. 2022.
“Yen.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster, Yen Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster. Accessed 5 Jan. 2022.
That reminds me of something similar…
English:
Pine = a type of tree
Pine = to yearn intensely (e.g. for someone you miss)
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pine
Japanese:
Matsu = a pine tree
Matsu = to wait, but also to “pine” for someone.
The dual meaning is used poetically by the Japanese.
(Cite: https://www.kyotojournal.org/gardens/the-poetry-of-the-gardens/ )
The Amazing But Trivial Coincidences thread needs a cross-post of that.
j
If you have some high voltage capacitors, there might be an export restriction on them. (Link - bottom of page 766.)
The result of the pandemic driving people batty?
Mele Kalikimaka. I’ve heard the Christmas song for decades, and always just figured it was the translation of “merry Christmas” into the Hawaiian language.
Turns out it’s not a translation - it’s the actual words “merry Christmas”, pounded and hammered to fit the more restrictive phonotactic rules of the Hawaiian language:
The Japanese language has a lot of this sort of thing going on too. If you hear a native speaker say “merry Christmas”, the second word tends to come out as “kurisumasu” unless they’ve been really fastidious about internalizing the phonotactics of English.
The Pacific island nation of Kiribati is pronounced Kiribass, which is is the closest the local language could get to reproducing the English name of the group, the Gilbert Islands.
I impressed Mrs. L with this today, but I learned it awhile back.
When your TV remote doesn’t seem to be working, you can check the batteries by pointing it at a digital camera. The pulses are invisible to the naked eye but a digital camera will show them on screen. Of course for many, the digital camera is on the cell phone.
Of course, this trick isn’t limited to your smartphone’s camera; many digital cameras can see infrared light, despite having filters to tune it out. So if all you have at your disposal is your laptop’s built-in webcam, you may have everything you need.
That’s only if your remote uses IR. Newer remotes use bluetooth that don’t need an emitter and don’t need to be pointed at the tv.
I remember a famous 1970s cricket player called Engineer. I think his first name was Farook . Not sure if I spelt that right .
Ah, haven’t see those.
Yeah, my Google Fiber remote talks to the Chromecast that is behind the TV (no line of sight). But it also talks to the TV, which is old so I presume it is using infrared.
What about Innsmouth?
Thank you for adding this. I was going to mention Japanese as being “phonetically restrictive.” And the Japanese are very inventive with language. Thus, we get lots of “Japanese English” (term used by Japanese) words that make sense to Japanese but are so different from the original as to be not understood by native speakers. Examples:
Bijinesu-man = businessman
famicon = family computer
amefuto = American Football (as in NFL)
There’s of course nothing different about native Japanese speakers’ vocal physiology, but when you’ve grown up with a restrictive set of phonotactic rules, it can be really hard to adopt another more liberal set of rules. I watch Nobita’s videos a lot. He is fluent in English as far as grammar and syntax go, but he’s got a really strong Japanese accent. Every now and then he uses the word “positively,” except he pronounces it “pojichiburi.”
As you’ve noted too, Japanese folks are fond of portmanteaus. I hadn’t heard of “famicon”, but I’m aware of “pasokon” (personal computer). Probably the most famous two outside of Japan are:
- Pokemon, short for “Pocket Monster”.
- Tamagotchi, short for “Tamago uochi” (“egg watch”).
Too shadowy over there.
Yes! Those portmanteaus. There are so many, and often amusing. Heck, I even make some of them my own, using them in my English-only household, e.g. the -gon suffix from “doragon” (dragon) is often appended to my kids’ or pets’ names, making them little dragons. (Decades ago I babysat my neighbor’s toddler when living in Japan. Yuma became Yumagon.)