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[-] Green_Bay_Guy@midwest.social 31 points 1 year ago

You could do this all day with Vietnamese. Kangaroo is bag mouse. Orca is assassin fish, giraffe is a long-necked deer. Etc.

[-] enthusiasticamoeba@lemmy.ml 19 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Dutch has a lot of good ones!

Hippo: Nile Horse (nijlpaard)

Leopard: Lazy Horse (luipaard)

Sea urchin: Sea Hedgehog (zee egel)

Seal: Sea Dog (zeehond)

Skunk: Stink Animal (stinkdier)

Turtle: Shield Toad (Schildpad)

Slug: Naked Snail (Naaktslak)

Porcupine: Spiky Pig (Stekelvarken)

Edit: formatting

[-] lugal@sopuli.xyz 10 points 1 year ago

Leopard: Lazy Horse (luipaard)

I've looked it up and apparently leo is lion and part is leopard or panther. So it's a lion leopard. English and Dutch have the same etymology, and German too, all your examples are the same in German.

[-] napalminjello@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago

Are you implying that the word for leopard is compounded from the word for leopard???? How did they get the first word for leopard if they didn't have a word for leopard?????

[-] Haus@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago

The Dutch are sneaky bastards (stiekemeklootzakken).

[-] WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

There are only two things I can't stand in this world: People who are intolerant of other people's cultures, and the Dutch.

[-] lugal@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 year ago

Correction: it's male leopard. It surprised me as well. It's ultimately from Indo-Iranian origin.

https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/pardus#Latin

[-] Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 1 year ago

Hippopotamus comes from the Greek words hippos (horse) and potamos (river). So literally "river horse".

[-] Pinklink@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago

While this is kind of fun, it’s also kind of frustrating. Like when Merriam Webster tries to define a word for me by using the word. Frustrating: having a quality or qualities that frustrates.

[-] redcalcium@lemmy.institute 4 points 1 year ago

So this is why Indonesian names for hippo, sea urchin and seal are weird af. They are actually direct translation from their dutch names!

[-] CurlyMoustache@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Norwegian

Hedgehog: Needle Swine (pinnsvin/

[-] saltnotsugar@lemm.ee 8 points 1 year ago

Wow that’s a big bouncing animal! Kind of reminds me of-
“A mouse. Like a big mouse with a bag.”
…Good idea sir.

[-] WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Sylvester agrees.

[-] lugal@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 year ago

German has Killerwahl (killer whale) for orca

[-] nudnyekscentryk@szmer.info 4 points 1 year ago
[-] lugal@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 year ago

I didn't know. So the German might be a calque from the English

[-] HotDogFingies@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago

That's adorable

[-] DrQuint@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Somewhere, out there, there's a language that does NOT have any funny details like this. Those who speak it have the maximum enjoyment potential when learning out.

this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2023
1183 points (97.4% liked)

Memes

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