As a Malaysian, i realised my some English words i used are not actually 'proper English'. For example, we use the word 'jom' instead of 'lets go', which might sound like a completely different language for other English native speakers.

There are more examples like 'Atas' 'Langzai' 'amoi'. Those words originated from the local languages such as Malay and Chinese. HOWEVER, English native speakers in Malaysia like me use those words naturally without even being aware that those are possibly Malay or Chinese words.

I know the same thing happens to non-native speakers as they often mix their home language with English. But Malaysians are the only example i can think of who creates new words from other languages and use it in daily English conversation while speaking English as our first language.

i also created a Mnagluhs dictionary. Can any linguist explain how Manglish was formed and if there are any other examples like Manglish existing in the world?

Yes it is. Google Terms shows the use of this term increasing in the early 21st century. It centers the use of this term on Washington DC. I'm here to raise questions, not answer them.

Hello! I am a conservationist doing some work about Tilcayo, the "recently" discovered small cat species in Bolivia.

We learned that the name the locals gave the cat was a bit of slang that originated from the word "T'ili kayu" which means "small foot."

The specific cat found was named "Tilgrino." I'm struggling to find any real translation of "-grino." All of my searches are being flooded with AI correcting it to "gringo."

I found a few articles but they credit AI models as well.

So far I have two possible meanings, (latin) traveller and (germanic) fierce.

For context, the cat was found as a baby at the foot of a mountain and taken in by a local who thought it was a domestic kitten. I can see both meanings fitting with this background.

From your own viewpoint, which one do you think is the most accurate. My boss is telling me it doesn't really matter, but I'd like to be as close as possible to the truth.

جان. Written, it's jān. Said in Tehran, it's joon, and it goes on the end of a name: Maryam-joon, māmān-joon. There it means dear. The noun itself means soul, life. Someone calls your name and you answer joonam?, "my soul?", which is a warm way of saying "yes?"

Middle Persian had gyān, soul (no relation to Hindi gyān, knowledge). The same gy- to j- change turned gyāg, place, into jā. The standard etymology splits gyān into a prefix plus a reconstructed Iranian root meaning to breathe. Sanskrit put the same two pieces together in vyāna, the name of one of the body's vital breaths. Behind both is the Indo-European root that also gave Greek anemos, wind, and Latin anima, breath, soul.

To be careful: jān doesn't mean breath, and as far as I can find it never did. The breathing is in the root. It also wasn't always the accepted story. Nineteenth-century etymologists proposed other origins.

Interestingly, Middle Persian made a word for animal out of gyān, and Persian still says jānvar, roughly "soul-haver." Latin made animal out of anima. Two languages making the same move with the same old root, and no borrowing either way.

If you know jaan from Urdu and Hindi, that one is a loan from Persian.

I grew up understanding Persian and answering in English. I only went digging after stumbling upon this rabbit hole while learning more about the language so i could build Farsi-Jan.

Hope this is an okay thing to ask about here.

Something I've been interested in for a while is a dictionary that defines and provides origins for different types of "styles" of food - So like Oysters "Rockefeller", Lobster "Newburg", Chicken "Florentine". That kind of thing.

Also, is there a term for that kind of thing - the X in "Food a la X"?

Edit - I realize a lot of these are going to be covered in lists of eponyms, but I'm interested in something that would also include food toponyms.

Hey! Y'know how the word knight (and other kn- English words) have a silent K because it used to be pronounced but eventually the [k] got dropped but the letter stayed in our spelling? Does anyone know of a scholarly source that states this? Of course the OED and other etymology resources have the old spellings but I can't find anything specifically on the pronunciation that is reliable enough to be cited. Thanks for your help!

This Sunday afternoon I was in the small city of Duffel, close to Antwerp(en), Belgium.

What a coincidence: Duffel cloth ... Duffel bag ... Duffel coat.

Oh ... not a coincidence at all ... from Wikipedia:

The town gives its name to a type of heavy woolen cloth generally used to make blankets and overcoats, especially for the armed forces, and a type of luggage. In the Middle Ages, an important part of the region's industry was the manufacturing of Flemish laken (a broadcloth), while the cloth produced in Duffel was a thicker variation. The manufacturing process was brought to England by Flemish emigrants in the 1500s. The name for the cloth was so well-known, a type of overcoat made from the cloth and manufactured in England received the name Duffel coat.

I always wondered about that. From my surface-level knowledge, it also doesn't make sense, since the Russian word 'Путь' is masculine, so wouldn't it make more sense as Putov (Путов) or Putev (Путев)? (I dunno, sry).

∘ ∘ ∘ (｡· ヮ ·｡) ?

I was researching the history of fools and on the 1828 websters dictionary it seems to connect fools to idiots or idiotic behavior (i.e. the term for the mentally disabled at the time). There were a couple articles from britanica and wikipedia that talked about natrual fools/fool born, people who had intellectual disabilities (or in UK terms a learning disability) and their use as entertainers in Europe since at least the Tudor era. The connection also seems to extend to the bible with the "holy fool", which I'm giving conflicting results as to whether it means those with/who feigned mental disability and/or mental illness or just mental disability for the lord.

How connected was the idea of foolishness to mentally disability?

Was it a medical term first (a la the word idiot)?

Was it connected to other mental illnesses like schizophrenia, ocd, or other forms of insanity?

When most people used the term fool, were they implying a resemblance to a mentally disabled person? When did this connection end?

What’s the story of companies in particular, labelling their products “lite” instead of “light”? Thinking Nintendo DS Lite, Lite phones, Lite drinks and foods, and others.

I am reading Les Mis, the original translation by Charles Wilbour. One of the sentences is “I know that man. He is a fagot.” The word is in italics and at the bottom of the page it states the word means “former convict.” I can’t find any evidence to support this claim. everything I am finding online points to the etymology of the word being ”a bundle of twigs used as kindling for a fire.” I am curious if you experts can help me out! thanks

This is pretty self explanatory, what languages besides English went through a change in their vowels and what words and sounds did that vowel shift affect?

I keep seeing it on Tiktok and I'm wondering what it means.

For example - no, avocado does not mean "testicle" in Nahuatl. At least not anymore than nut, means testicle in English.

Indeed it can be reconstructed to proto-Nahuatl as *yewaka in the meaning "avocado".

Both cognates inherited the word through reconstructed Proto-Indo European: gʷḗn-, meaning "woman".

Serbian and many other Slavic languages like Polish ( żona ) inherited it through Proto-Slavic : žena (woman).

During the Mughal Period as the Persian language influenced the Indian sub-continent Urdu and Hindi had adopted the word "zanana" through classical Persian  زنانه (zanāna) which is composed of zan ( زن ) meaning woman and -âne (ـانه) a suffix that functions much the same as -ly does in English forming adjectives describing actions, concept or human beings.

So quite literally it means womanly or feminine. But the word zanana in this specific context went through nominalization and was originally a much longer form Sarāy-e zanāna (the house pertaining to women/women quarters) and began to shorten over time to just zanāna.

Lastly, both these words are cognates through PIE to English "queen".

Currently have shingles the disease (0/5 stars, do not recommend) and wondering how we got a word that means both a nerve infection and plates on a roof.

I regularly use an expression "fizzle fazzle foo", usually with the meaning of "chaotic and indescribable", for example: "after the day I've had I'm feeling all fizzle fazzle foo" or "this whole situation is all gestures wildly fizzle fazzle foo." Someone recently asked if it is from something, like a movie or book, and I immediately said yes, although I have no idea where from or when I started using it. After searching online for a while I cannot find an obvious origin.

I am wondering if 1. Anyone else uses it and in a similar context and 2. If anyone knows where it might have come from.

Seeing “brygge” used in current Norwegian (Oslo) as both a wharf (Arten Brygge) and brewery (Amundsen Bryggeri). Both go back to old Norse for “carry” which kind of makes sense for a wharf. More so for bridge or brig. Not seeing how brewing comes into play.

• Body Text: I was thinking about the chocolate brand Maltesers today. Even though Forrest Mars named them after malted milk and "palate teasers" back in 1936, the name works perfectly as a modern phonetic pun.If you break down how it sounds, it literally tells you exactly what the product does: "Melt-easy." Given that their main marketing slogan is "the lighter way to enjoy chocolate" because they dissolve so quickly, it’s an incredibly fitting linguistic coincidence
  • Malt -> Melt
  • Eser -> Easy
• "Melt-easy." Given that their main marketing slogan is "the lighter way to enjoy chocolate" because they dissolve so quickly, it’s an incredibly fitting linguistic coincidence…just me lol?