I have always assumed that the elephant Jumbo's name came from the Swahili greeting "Jambo", meaning "Hello".

hi. anything's possible when it comes to word origins, but I can't picture greeting an elephant in the wild!

But of course one can greet an elephant in the wild. You can greet anything in the wild. Simply a matter of good manners.

Tree-huggers must greet the tree before hugging it. And this is
usually in the wild.


WELCOME EPISTROPHY68

Tree-hugger? That's a blimingly new word to me. As is blimingly which I just heard use by one of the jury members of the BBC 2 program "Great British Menu".

" Oh, come on Prue, this ìs a blimingly good piece of beef Wellington"

The word didn't turn up in Onelook, but has 32 results on Google.

"Tree-hugger"

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tree%20hugger

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/tree+hugger

perhaps it is just a USA term.

I just assumed (still haven't learned!) the name was visual onomatopoeia. (Is there a word for that?)

Simply a matter of good manners.

Tree-hugger is often (usually?) used in derogatory fashion, but it is often embraced(!) by those to whom it is applied.

visual onomatopoeia

Synaesthesia? Onomatopoeia: "The formation of a word from a sound associated with the thing or action being named; the formation of words imitative of sounds." (OED Online) Visual words sound like? But, in the Greek original, there is nothing about sounds: just "making words"; a poet is a maker.

It's still surprising to come across a word you don't have and we have it (and vice versa) We call it beeldend woord; or beeldoproeper.
'beeldend' means 'image evoking- image making'. Any possibility to catch image evoker / maker in one word?

(btw, that cute little bar on top of my message window is not working any more, so no Italics and colors and smileys possible.
anyone who knows what could be wrong with this?)

onliest thing I can imagine is that you used Quick Reply instead of Reply.

I think TS is correct Bran...its all working here fine for me

AHD4 says jumbo is, perhaps from the slang term meaning 'clumsy fellow'. Etymonline takes it one step further, suggesting that the slang term is from a West African language word for elephant.

suggesting that the slang term is from a West African language word for elephant.

Yeah. Folks do hate an unsolved etymology. Origin uncertain is a bad thing.

Yehm, always hate unsolved problems, I do.
TS AKA tsuwm, I never use quick reply cause I know my answers never will be quick.

I got a serious problem. The link function works. Script promp works. (don't want it) I can make a list. (don't want it)
The whole rest of the the cute little quares is LIMP, LAME, DEAD,
PASSÉ, GONE. If only I knew the origin. Yes I hate unsolved problems.

Have you PM'd Jackie??

Visual words sound like? Yeah, that wasn't very good, was it? I just meant the inherent quality in both: jumbo = very large, and elephants are very large. Hey--visualization onomatopoeia? (Just kidding--I got your point!)

PM'ing me won't do you any good, Branny/all: I have nothing to do with the way this place functions. And in fact yesterday I tried to put an image in a PM but it showed only as a link, not a picture.

Let's see: Ok, that worked. Now, bolding. Ok, that worked for me. Let me go find an image somewhere:


Well, that worked here, too. Dunno what why it didn't work in my PM. [shrug]

And I thought it was the J was the elephant's trunk and the u was the ear or something like that. Yeah, jumbo probably got its meaning of largeness from its use as the name of a particularly large elephant.

J shape works for Jumbo shrimp too I presume.

"" PM'ing me won't do you any good, Branny/all: I have nothing to do with the way this place functions.""

I know Jackie, thanks for the glorious elephant.

But someone of the higher techs here might understand the following: I get left at page bottom: Error on page.

I copied the error details:

Message: Object required
Line: 20
Char: 3
Code: 0
URI: http://wordsmith.org/board/ubb_js/standard_text_editor.js?v=7.5.6

Of course this makes it clear to me once more that I can use computers, but I cannot understand them. ( as goes for light switches, TV's, cars, you name it.
:-)smile,:-)

I got sidetracked looking for this word Jumbo...no clear answer yet....but meanwhile has anyone seen Water For Elephants? I read the book some years ago and am waiting to see the movie.

Looks curious enough. I am somewhat intrigued with it. But
a trailer only gives so much.

has anyone seen Water For Elephants? No, and I'm not about to, despite loving Reese Witherspoon. The book was utterly and totally depressing, and horrible things happened, and I hated it. [shudder]

I might like the book, but I don't like Witherspoon. Isn't it
amazing how different we all are. It sure is about tolerance
in our world. Too bad there is not more of it.