16 Comments

Good one! Really never wondered about that before. But glad to know.

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Yay! Have you ever chased a phrase down a rabbit hole like this? It's surprisingly fun!

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Definitely chase language down on a Wiktionary and even some 16th century French in order to find the old science of the body behind some terms for my historical research. Fascinating connections get lost!

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I love this stuff so much. I'd love it if you could take a look at the "Fetchez La Vache" piece I did a while back. I took French a LONG time ago, and I kept some fragments in my mind, but doing the research was a fresh endeavor!

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Here's that link: https://goatfury.substack.com/p/fetchez-la-vache

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I really enjoy the crazy cool places your research takes you: vacations, vaccines and cows. I quickly skimmed the entry on vache linked below at Trésor de la Langue Française informatisé and learned there was an intriguing connection in the early modern period between sorcery and Spanish cows. "il n'y a point d'autres sorciers au monde que les vaches espagnoles"...in case you aren't familiar with the site:

http://stella.atilf.fr/Dendien/scripts/tlfiv5/visusel.exe?164;s=1587658050;b=13;r=1;nat=assiste;

There are sometimes gems within the quotes in the entries! I was looking for humoral logics in the language of emotions. For example, I found effroy, translated in modern parlance as terror, literally referred to the blood turning to ice. Efroy/Effroy “Glacer le sang à; (son) sang (qui) se glace (dans ses veines); sang qui se glace d'effroi [Ice the blood; (his) blood (which) freezes (in his veins); blood that freezes/drowns with dread.]” (http://stella.atilf.fr/Dendien/scripts/tlfiv5/visusel.exe?46;s=2022160710;r=3;nat=;sol=1;

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I got " not secure" and "Session expirée" when I tried clicking, but this rabbit hole you're bringing me down sounds very interesting! And, I'm glad you enjoy the pseudo-random nature of what I write. I don't think I could do it any other way.

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Mar 9Liked by Andrew Smith

The thing is, the Danish parliament is called "Folketinget" (literally "The People's Thing.")

But the thing is, "tinget" can also mean "the thing" in Danish, exactly as in English.

So "tinget" is not just one thing, but many things.

It's confusing to have words that have multiple meanings, but that's just the thing, isn't it?

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Ben Grimm says he's the only Thing that really matters.

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Mar 10Liked by Andrew Smith

I see your Ben Grimm, and I raise you: https://tenor.com/view/kurt-russel-the-thing-gif-8355256

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Nicely done. The only counter would be like a reference to Pennywise the Clown, but I'm not gonna do that.

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I know. They were my ancestors, so I know their history and some of their language well.

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They also "got around", so of course they're my ancestors too.

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Undoubtedly, as the Vikings spread around the world, they took that "thing" with them.

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The thing is, the Vikings were an amazing vector for the spread of LOTS of ideas!

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I believe Bob Dobbs said it best when he pronounced "fuck 'em if they can't take a joke."

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