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Posted By: Rob Austria/Ostrich? - 05/23/00 03:43 AM
I seem to remember hearing once that there is some sort of connection between 'ostrich' and 'Austria', in that the German for 'Austria' is 'Oesterreich' (I think lit. 'Eastern Reich/Land') which is corrupted to give us 'ostrich'. Somewhere along the thread there was also the fact that the German for an ostrich is 'ein Strauss'. And I think this was supposed to be something to do with Austria as well. Does anyone know the actual etymology of 'ostrich' and if it is related to the German for 'Austria', how is that exactly? And what about the German for ostrich being 'Strauss'?

Posted By: David108 Re: Austria/Ostrich? - 05/23/00 06:34 PM
An interesting question, Rob.

I did some surfing (thanks to tswum for the Google search tip) and came up with the following fact:

Ostriches are mentioned in Shakespeare (Henry VI, Pt. II, IV, x) and The Bible (Job xxxix, 14-16).

Refer to http://members.xoom.com/teostrich/ostriches/ostrich.html

This site is run by someone who appears to be an ostrich enthusiast!



Posted By: tsuwm Re: Austria/Ostrich? - 05/23/00 06:41 PM
CADE: Here's the lord of the soil come to seize me for a
stray, for entering his fee-simple without leave.
Ah, villain, thou wilt betray me, and get a thousand
crowns of the king carrying my head to him: but
I'll make thee eat iron like an ostrich, and swallow
my sword like a great pin, ere thou and I part.

(that would be Shakespeare :)

"What's another word for Thesaurus?" -Steven Wright
Posted By: Jackie Re: Austria/Ostrich? - 05/25/00 11:15 AM
Tsuwm,
OK, I'll bite.
>"What's another word for Thesaurus?"<
Run? (think about it)

Oh! Just tried markup again, previewed, and saw success!
I can now tell you that I am not crazy or blind, at least
in the sense of not being able to see how to use markup in
my posts. Sometimes that option is there, and sometimes
it isn't! (Whew!)


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