You know you're a language nerd when…

[Brun Ugle]

When you are beginning to panic because you can't get into your computer, in spite of the fact that you KNOW you are typing the correct password . . . and then you realize that you forgot to turn your Russian keyboard off.

When learning the etymology of the Polish word for "elephant" (słoń) puts you on a language high for the rest of the day. (Actually, let's be honest, the rest of the week. I still haven't stopped telling people about it.)

When you immediately google the etymology of słoń.

[Teango]

...When learning the etymology of the Polish word for "elephant" (słoń) puts you on a language high for the rest of the day. (Actually, let's be honest, the rest of the week. I still haven't stopped telling people about it.)

When you immediately google the etymology of słoń.

I tried to resist the temptation...

"From Proto-Slavic *slonъ, possibly a deverbative from *sloniti sę ‎(“to lean against”), relating to а medieval story of а sleeping elephant who leaned against a tree." (source)

...but failed happily.

[Iversen]

When you doubt the information about the etymology of slon' even though Wikipedia normally only delivers 100% trustworthy information (or...).

Quote:

Most likely related to Turkish aslan ‎(“lion”); Witczak (2013) cites many parallel cases of semantic spread between different exotic animals in Indo-European. If not, perhaps a deverbative from *sloniti sę ‎(“to lean against”), relating to the medieval story of an elephant sleeping leaning on a tree.

And there the scepticist in me awakens. Why should an elephant remind somebody about a lion to the degree that they confused their names? And why should stories about leaning elephants pop up during the medieval period when there weren't any elephants in the area inhabited by the Protoslav population?

Unfortunately I haven't got a better story myself, but that shouldn't cause us to believe any old folk etymology. "Det er en ommer" as we say in Danish (approx. "it is a try-again'er").

[Teango]

@Iversen
I'll admit to a healthy tug of scepticism here myself (and we're not the first - good ol' WordReference forum!), but the image and subsequent story left in my mind was just too bittersweet to readily cast aside; poor little слонёнок, slumped up against a straining birch tree so far from home...

[Amerykanka]

I personally prefer the słoń < aslan explanation - it's just so perfect. Especially in light of the fact that wielbłąd (camel) supposedly comes from the Gothic ulbandus, which means "elephant". Isn't it fantastic to think that Poles (and speakers of other Slavic languages) might be wandering around calling camels elephants and elephants lions?

It doesn't seem that weird to me that confusion might have arisen - if everyone simply thought "large, potentially dangerous animal" whenever elephants, camels, and lions were referenced, then they were bound to confuse their terms sometimes!

[Iversen]

If I have to choose then the "big unspecified dangerous animal" explanation would also be my favorite, and there are indeed similar cases galore if you look for them. For instance a giraffe is officially called Giraffa camelopardalis - i.e. a camel-leopard (because of the spots), and a sizeable portions of the heraldic lions (those that walk with their faces turned towards the spectators) are called leopards just because the medieval Europeans didn't really know the real difference between the two species, penguins are called penguins because the great auk was called that and somebody thought they might be related, the white rhino ain't white but grey (it just had 'wide' mouth according to the boers), the cuttlefish aren't fish in any sense of the word -they just live in water like fish do .. and so on and so on.

And as an Aberdabei: we have all proven our consummate nerdiness by even discussing this theme. And the inhabitants of the Wordreference planet who discussed it before us definitely also display tendencies in that direction. Us nerds have to stick together in this world of alternative truths and Facebook.

Kunst098-udsnit.jpg

[Tillumadoguenirurm]

If I have to choose then the "big unspecified dangerous animal" explanation would also be my favorite, and there are indeed similar cases galore if you look for them. For instance a giraffe is officially called Giraffa camelopardalis - i.e. a camel-leopard (because of the spots), and a sizeable portions of the heraldic lions (those that walk with their faces turned towards the spectators) are called leopards just because the medieval Europeans didn't really know the real difference between the two species, penguins are called penguins because the great auk was called that and somebody thought they might be related, the white rhino ain't white but grey (it just had 'wide' mouth according to the boers), the cuttlefish aren't fish in any sense of the word -they just live in water like fish do .. and so on and so on.

That's funny Iversen, when I read these post last night, the first thing that came to mind was the heraldic so-called lions. There are even examples of animals with eagle-like heads and feline bodies being called lions. Even today people who don't know animals confuse lions with other cats and vice versa. And honestly, if people have never seen neither a lion nor an elephant, and all they know about them is that they both come from Africa/Asia/"Asia" and that they are both big mammals with big teeth, it's not especially hard to imagine that someone might have gotten confused at one point.

I like the "leaning" version, but I have no idea wether it's true or not.

[Tillumadoguenirurm]

You know that you're a language nerd when you dream in your sleep that you are studying a language and in the dream you are wondering about wich verb forms to use when, suddenly, you discover that you have already been using not only the wrong verbs for years, but the actual woooooooords.

...That when someone asks if you slept well you tell them that you had a nightmare.




Buenas noches indeed... (muajajajajajaj).

[Jar-Ptitsa]

If I have to choose then the "big unspecified dangerous animal" explanation would also be my favorite, and there are indeed similar cases galore if you look for them. For instance a giraffe is officially called Giraffa camelopardalis - i.e. a camel-leopard (because of the spots), and a sizeable portions of the heraldic lions (those that walk with their faces turned towards the spectators) are called leopards just because the medieval Europeans didn't really know the real difference between the two species, penguins are called penguins because the great auk was called that and somebody thought they might be related, the white rhino ain't white but grey (it just had 'wide' mouth according to the boers), the cuttlefish aren't fish in any sense of the word -they just live in water like fish do .. and so on and so on.

And as an Aberdabei: we have all proven our consummate nerdiness by even discussing this theme. And the inhabitants of the Wordreference planet who discussed it before us definitely also display tendencies in that direction. Us nerds have to stick together in this world of alternative truths and Facebook.

Kunst098-udsnit.jpg

I remember when we discussed the leopard heralidc lions and posted pictures of them as well. Was that on the old forum, i think that it was there, unfortunately. It was a fun and interesting discussion.

[Cavesa]

...when you are proud of yourself for finally typing fluently on the French keyboard.

But a while after this emotion, I couldn't get back into my computer as it kept refusing my password. Guess why. It was driving me crazy for several minutes, until I realized it

P.S. I really like the French keyboard now with all those nicely laid out letters with accents and stuff. But why on earth did they have to do the whole W-Y-Z castling?!