# Your favorite unexpected etymology **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 22, 2013, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641 "2013-06-22T17:12:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2013, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641/201 "2013-09-13T02:16:57Z")
> [@For You](#): > > Try [peccary](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peccary)? Yup, that’s the one. They call it “puerco de monte” (“wild pig”) in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. Good eatin’, though rather small. I once went hunting with a guy who lived in a forest village near the Guatemala border. His shot missed, but he scared the thing into a limestone hole, from which we smoked him out and shot him. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2013, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641/202 "2013-09-13T19:27:23Z")
That’s funny, those are described as being nicknamed “skunk pig”. My hunter buddy said that nobody likes to eat javelinas. They were killing some off on their property and couldn’t get anyone who would take them. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2013, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641/203 "2013-09-14T01:25:59Z")
Huh! Maybe they taste better in the Yucatan. But you’re right – even in the Yucatan they’re not a delicacy. The “tepescuintle” (Nahuatl for “wild dog” or “mountain dog,” though I think of it more like a deer-colored big rabbit) is considered tastier, though smaller. I think its scientific name is Agouti paca. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641/204 "2013-09-27T13:03:35Z")
I like how the Chinese language came up with a term for air: the compound 空氣 _kong qi_. [ul] [li]The word 空 _kong_ means sky, empty, hollow, bare, void, deserted, and also the Buddhist concept of _śūnyatā_. The most basic of these meanings, I think, is ‘empty’.[/li][li]While 氣 _qi_ could be translated as gas, steam, vapor, breath, spirit. Its most basic meaning is shown by the radical 气 meaning ‘steam’[/li][/ul] So in Chinese air is literally ‘empty steam’. I love the elegance of how a philosophical/scientific term was abstracted from concrete meanings combined together. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641/205 "2013-09-27T16:23:12Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > I like how the Chinese language came up with a term for air: the compound 空氣 _kong qi_. > [ul] > [li]The word 空 _kong_ means sky, empty, hollow, bare, void, deserted, and also the Buddhist concept of _śūnyatā_. The most basic of these meanings, I think, is ‘empty’.[/li][li]While 氣 _qi_ could be translated as gas, steam, vapor, breath, spirit. Its most basic meaning is shown by the radical 气 meaning ‘steam’[/li][/ul] > > So in Chinese air is literally ‘empty steam’. I love the elegance of how a philosophical/scientific term was abstracted from concrete meanings combined together. Nope. “Steam” is 汽, not 氣. 空氣 simply means “empty air,” no more and no less. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641/206 "2013-09-27T16:33:52Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > Nope. “Steam” is 汽, not 氣. > > 空氣 simply means “empty air,” no more and no less. Further, and not to be pedantic, but the radical 气 means “breath.” I think you’re confusing that radical with the simplified Chinese character that looks the same but is used as a catchall for a broader range of meanings with the same pronunciation. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641/207 "2013-09-27T18:14:35Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > No, the jabali is a new-world animal, often called a “wild boar” in English due to its resemblance to the old world animal of that name. Rather like European and Anerican Robins. Uhm… the pecari IS a _jabalí_, but Old World wild pigs are also _jabalíes_, and they were _jabalíes_ first. The pecari got its name of _jabalí americano_ (“american wild hog”) from its resemblance to Old World ones. RAE on [jabalí](http://lema.rae.es/drae/?val=jabal%C3%AD), [pecarí](http://lema.rae.es/drae/?val=pecar%C3%AD) and [saíno](http://lema.rae.es/drae/?val=sa%C3%ADno)(to which pecarí redirects, although personally I just learned that name; you need to click on the second line to get the actual definition, as apparently someone has been having too much fun with databases). ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641/208 "2013-09-27T18:24:26Z")
Translations of the above: Jabalí: pachyderm that’s very common in Spain’s mountainous areas, wild variety of pig; differs from the domesticated variety in having a narrower head, longer muzzle, always-up ears, always-grey thick hairs, and long thick tusks. Pecarí, saíno: pachyderm which looks like a baby boar about six months old; tail-less, with long strong hairs, small tusks and a navel-shaped gland atop the back which segregates a fetid substance. It lives in the forests of America\* and its meat is appreciated. - the original term is _América Meridional_ and _meridional_ means “southern”, but despite what a misleading literalness would lead one to believe, that doesn’t mean the same as South America. The whole language of the entry makes me suspect it hasn’t been updated for at least 100 years. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641/209 "2013-09-27T21:39:39Z")
I still find it amusing how much the articles are stressing how valued the meat is, when around here _nobody_ wants it. Even the _gasp_ Mexicans. (How it was put to me. The folks to whom you say “free trash” and they say “gimmee”. Could be any ethnicity, really.) ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641/210 "2013-09-27T22:14:17Z")
So you’re saying [Wiktionary](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E6%B0%94)is wrong? > [@](#): > > 气 (radical 84 气+0, 4 strokes, cangjie input 人一弓 (OMN), X人一弓 (XOMN), four-corner 80017) > steam, vapour, air > spirit > KangXi radical 84 [氣](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E6%B0%A3) > [@](#): > > 氣 (radical 84 气+6, 10 strokes, cangjie input 人弓火木 (ONFD), four-corner 80917) > air, gas, steam, vapor > breath, spirit I mean, I don’t know personally; all I know is what the Wiktionary entries said. If they’re truly wrong, and if you have the reliably sourced cites to prove it, maybe you should edit those pages to correct the errors. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-unexpected-etymology/661641.md?page=10)