The random etymology of the day

[BlackBlade]

Go to this link and click "Transcript."  It says:

Curiously, this is similar to how the local Quetchua people preserve llama meat. The result is "jerky," which is one of the few Quetchua words used in English.

Sounds like I need to send a hit squad after the memory dept in my brain.

[The Genuine]

When you have more than one variety of jerky (like original, teriaki, and peppered), what's the plural spelling?  Jerkys?  Jerkies?  Jerks?  Chrome seems to tolerate all but the first.

[Jonathon]

Well I guess that depends on your definition of "few."

Few is often used to emphasize the relatively small number of something, so I think their sentence works just fine.

When you have more than one variety of jerky (like original, teriaki, and peppered), what's the plural spelling?  Jerkys?  Jerkies?  Jerks?  Chrome seems to tolerate all but the first.

My intuition is that jerky is a mass noun and thus does not normally inflect for a plural. But if you do pluralize it, it'd be jerkies.

[rivka]

Sounds like I need to send a hit squad after the memory dept in my brain.

That sounds likely to be counter-productive.

[BlackBlade]

Sounds like I need to send a hit squad after the memory dept in my brain.

That sounds likely to be counter-productive.

What wouldn't be counterproductive?  Why would I ever send a hit squad after my own memory!? 

[Tante Shvester]

I've never sent a hit squad after my own memory.  At least, not that I can recall.



This may be a bad sign.

[rivka]

BB, why ask me? This was your idea, remember?

I said, remember?

[Annie Subjunctive]

Interesting! I think of all of those, lagniappe is the most surprising.

[Jonathon]

Of course, it's the most tenuous etymology of the bunch.

[Jonathon]

Caret comes from the Latin carere, meaning 'to lack' or 'to be in want of'. It's used to mark an insertion of something in a text (because the text was missing it).

Carat has a rather convoluted etymology, ultimately coming from the Greek keration 'carob seed', which is a diminutive of keras 'horn'. Apparently the seeds were used as standards of weight measurement. From Greek the word was borrowed into Arabic as qirat, from whence it was borrowed into Spanish and Portuguese as quirate, then into Italian as carato, then into French as carat, and finally into English.

Carrot's etymology is a little unclear. It ultimately comes from either the Greek kara 'head' (with an unclear note from the OED saying, "Cf. kephaloton, headed, said of plants, as garlic") or the Greek keras 'horn' because of its pointy shape. European carrots were originally white, with orange ones bred in the Netherlands in the seventeenth century.

[BlackBlade]

The Chinese word for carrot works pretty well.  紅萝卜， or red turnip.

[Jonathon]

I forgot to mention karat, which is simply a variant spelling of carat that is obsolete outside of the US. Carat is used for the weight of stones, while karat is used for the proportion of gold in an alloy. I can't say I find much value in the distinction.

[Annie Subjunctive]

The Chinese word for carrot works pretty well.  紅萝卜， or red turnip.

Red daikon, actually. Which doesn't work well at all because a carrot is not at all related to a daikon.

[Annie Subjunctive]

Of course, it's the most tenuous etymology of the bunch.

I wonder if I lost my chance to say "Your MOM's the most tenuous etymology of the bunch."

[Jonathon]

You did.

Er, I mean, your MOM lost the chance.

[rivka]

The Chinese word for carrot works pretty well.  紅萝卜， or red turnip.

Red daikon, actually. Which doesn't work well at all because a carrot is not at all related to a daikon.

But to a turnip it's related?

[Annie Subjunctive]

No. They've just had a bad translation for daikon. It is neither a turnip nor a radish.

[rivka]

No, I mean, is a carrot any more related to a turnip than it is to a daikon?

[Annie Subjunctive]

I don't know, but my point was that the word 萝卜, which is part of the word for carrot, "red-萝卜" is a daikon, not a turnip.

[BlackBlade]

I don't know, but my point was that the word 萝卜, which is part of the word for carrot, "red-萝卜" is a daikon, not a turnip.

It's turnip, actually.  Or radish.

http://www.nciku.com/search/en/detail/turnip/1714279

[Annie Subjunctive]

That same dictionary is also calling it a radish. That dictionary is not correct! A luo bo is totally a daikon. We didn't have a word in English for daikon until very recently, though, hence people mistakenly calling it a turnip or a radish.

Daikon
Luo bo - look at the scientific name.

Also, BB, this is for you.

[BlackBlade]

hence people mistakenly calling it a turnip or a radish.

Or when it comes to Chinese they have a word for turnip and radish and it's "蘿蔔".  Go check zhongwen.com if you don't believe me.  A daikon is a "白蘿蔔" (White turnip) and a carrot is a "紅蘿蔔." (red turnip).

I don't think there's anything wrong with saying "紅蘿蔔" means red daikon, daikon is also rendered "蘿蔔."  They most certainly use daikon in a lot of "turnip cakes."  But they also turnips (as the Chinese call them) in "turnip cake."

Look that got complicated.  When I see a carrot, I call it "紅蘿蔔" in China and am understood.  When I say to Chinese people "A carrot is a 紅蘿蔔."  and "A turnip is a 蘿蔔." They nod their head in agreement.  Who cares if scientifically they are different?  The Chinese don't take their words from our Latin text books.

[Mucus]

I will note that the Wikipedia article says that daikon is a "R. sativus var. longipinnatus" which is a variety of the species "R. sativus" which is radish.
So it's daikon. It's also radish.

Edit to add: Looking further up. While a radish is the species level name and daikon is a variety of radish, carrot is merely in the same division (angiosperms) as radishes (meaning they aren't in the same order, family, or genus).

[Annie Subjunctive]

Or when it comes to Chinese they have a word for turnip and radish and it's "蘿蔔".  Go check zhongwen.com if you don't believe me.

I don't argue that dictionaries have translated luo bo as both turnip and radish. But those are not the actual vegetable we're talking about.

A turnip is totally different genus - a Brassica rapa. And in Chinese it's a 芜菁. Maybe some people use them in turnip cakes, I don't know, but if they did they wouldn't be luo bo gao anymore.

My point is that yes, many people may translate it as "turnip, white turnip" and "red turnip" but that it is not the same vegetable that is meant by the English word turnip. That is a totally different vegetable. Look, there is even a Chinese word for what we mean when we, in English, say turnip. Calling a daikon a turnip is mostly OK because it was translated that way for so long because we didn't have daikons in the English-speaking world. But it is biologially not a turnip. It is a species of radish, as Mucus points out, but is a species we don't have in the West and if you showed a radish or a turnip to a Chinese person they would not know what they are.

[Mucus]

Well, that last bit would depend on a number of things