Interesting Words (moved from Games)

Quasus

Civis Illustris

  • Civis Illustris

Location:
Águas Santas
Dixi etsi locus parum idoneus sit neque quisquam me rogaverit. :cool:
 

Pacifica

grammaticissima

  • Aedilis

Location:
Belgium
The Arabic words for grammatical subject and object are فاعل and مفعول, fāʿil- and mafʿūl-, literally the doing and the done or the affecting and the affected. What better names could there be? Surely some other languages have similar terms?
 

Glabrigausapes

Philistine

  • Civis Illustris

Location:
Milwaukee
The Arabic words for grammatical subject and object are فاعل and مفعول, fāʿil- and mafʿūl-, literally the doing and the done or the affecting and the affected. What better names could there be? Surely some other languages have similar terms?
Sanskrit grammar has something similar, but I can't remember the words. I'm probably thinking of 'active' parasmaipada (= alii-verbum) and 'passive' atmanepada (ipsi-verbum), dative-nominative compounds.

Unrelated:
Chinese 好 hǎo 'good, well; be fond of' is thought to be the radicals for 'female' and 'child', as in the relationship of mother and child. Kinda sweet, if true.
 

Pacifica

grammaticissima

  • Aedilis

Location:
Belgium

I'm curious about this word's etymology, but it doesn't seem to be known. I found a wild discussion about it here (tl;dr: someone claimed it was a Greek borrowing without stating which Greek word it was supposed to be from; others said it might be from Egyptian, Akkadian or other exotic stuff — at the end of the day, nothing remotely conclusive).

It was borrowed into Spanish and Portuguese as Fulano (earlier Foão in Portuguese, displaced by the Spanish version).
 

Pacifica

grammaticissima

  • Aedilis

Location:
Belgium
The verb قتل, whose primary meaning is "to kill", interestingly has a derivative meaning "to know, to master". I guess mastering something is making a killing in that thing, kind of (in a more extended sense than the financial one).
 

Glabrigausapes

Philistine

  • Civis Illustris

Location:
Milwaukee
Chinese slang word for Islam:
绿教 lujiao 'green faith'

Green is evidently the color most closely associated with Islam. News to me.
 

Glabrigausapes

Philistine

  • Civis Illustris

Location:
Milwaukee
S madanta 'having me as an end' (cognates 'me' + 'end')

The dying Drona says:
madantaṃ yuddham astu ca!
'Let the war be (esto!) me-ending' (i.e. 'Let the war end with (the death of) me!'
 

Pacifica

grammaticissima

  • Aedilis

Location:
Belgium
The Arabic verb غفل means basically to be asleep. With a direct object it means to conceal something. And with a preposition that corresponds literally to "from" it means to be unmindful or uncaring of something. Let me repeat that last one: in Arabic, "to be asleep from something" means to be unmindful or uncaring of it. Isn't that amazingly apt?
 

Ybytyruna

Cammarōrum Edācissimus

  • Civis Illustris

Location:
Brasilia
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In priſca lingua Braſilica, îagûara eſt vocabulum quo utebantur indigenæ ad ſignificandam illam ferocem beſtiam felinam, quæ nuncupatur ab hominibus naturæ ſcrutatoribus panthera onca (cujus imaginem videre poteſtis). Verbum Anglicum jaguar originem ducit ab hoc vocabulo Braſilico. David Morgan et Patricius Owens, fortaſſe ſecuti priſcum verbum Braſilicum, propoſuerunt vocabulum Latinum iaguāra, primæ declinationis, quod mihi maxime placet.

Indigenæ Braſiliani, temporibus antiquis, solebant veſci carne humana, qua de cauſa ſacerdotes jeſuitæ (ceterique Europæi) conabantur omnibus viris eos diſſuadere ne illud facerent. Quodam die, rogatus ab Ioanne Staden, mercenario Germano, ne comederet carnem humanam, propterea quod nefas eſſet hominem ab homine vorari, vir indigena reſponſum planiſſimum dedit: Îagûara ixé! Id eſt, dixit ſe non hominem, sed jaguaram eſſe.
 

Pacifica

grammaticissima

  • Aedilis

Location:
Belgium
Wikipedia dixit:
The Calamity [1] (Arabic: القارعة‎, al-qāriʻah, aka The Striking [2]) is the 101st chapter (sūrah) of the Quran with 11 verses (āyāt). This chapter takes its name from its first word "qariah",[3] referring to the Quranic view of the end time and eschatology. "Qariah" has been translated to calamity, striking, catastrophe, clatterer, etc.[4] According to Ibn Kathir, a traditionalistic exegete, Al-Qariah is one of the names of the Day of Judgement, like Al-Haaqqa, At-Tammah, As-Sakhkhah and others.[5]
Present participle of: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/قرع
 
E

Etaoin Shrdlu

Guest

At least its meaning is positive, if a bit arrogant. What about people named Ichabod in our culture? Not that there are many about, apart from Ichabod Crane.
 
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