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Carpal Tunnel
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In English our 'hand' palm is the same word as the one for the tree. Is this true in other languages? I realize that there are words in other languages similar to our palm such as paume and palma, but are these words, too, words for the tree? I can't imagine 'handflata' being the tree as well as the palm of the hand...but would like to know.
Thanks.
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Carpal Tunnel
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When are two different words not two different words? Apparently the name of the tree ( palma in Latin) derives from the shape of the leaves (like the palm of the hand, palma in Latin). The word for the tree, per AHD, entered Old English from the Old French and the word for the part of the hand entered Middle English from Old French. So go figure. http://www.bartleby.com/61/79/P0027900.htmlhttp://www.bartleby.com/61/80/P0028000.html
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Carpal Tunnel
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Not a direct reply, but. I was going to be buying food for one of our incoming refugees from Liberia, and one of the things I was told would be welcomed was palm oil. I finally found it at an oriental grocery, and when the girl (who came all that way to live in a strange country by herself at age 19!) arrived, I asked her (more or less) whether it was what she was used to, since to me it was nasty-looking. I was surprised to learn that she didn't say palm with an ah sound for the a like we do, but said it with the a having the same sound as in am, or pam. I find it next to impossible to say palm that way!
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Carpal Tunnel
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my mother says calm to rhyme with pam.. as for palm oil.. well its not pure refined oil as we are more used to.. (corn oil or vegetable oil) its more like butter (which is easily 'clarified" and can yeild a pure oil, but most westerns like the taste and characteristic of the 'milk solids' in butter, and rarely use clarified butter. coconut cream is similar--its not pure oil either, but has coconut meat (suspended solids) in it.. coconut oil is sweet. but red palm oil is sharp (think of the succulent taste of a tomato.. or citrus fruit) (you can get a similar taste to red palm oil by combining tomato paste and coconut oil.--sounds weird, taste good as gravy (with peanut butter for ground nut stew)) meanwhile getting back to hand/palm there is also the hosta plant, who's latin name has a palm root--only with (edit, thanks to dr bill,) with a twist.. a metathesis, it's plantian.. (like plantain weeds) (more editing..)
in checking the metathesis is an old one! these are from the american heritage dictionary, (with links too){green]Palm: 1. Any of various chiefly tropical evergreen trees, shrubs, or woody vines of the family Palmae (or Arecaceae), characteristically having unbranched trunks with a crown of large pinnate or palmate leaves having conspicuous parallel venation. 2. A leaf of a palm tree, carried as an emblem of victory, success, or joy. 3. Triumph; victory. 4. A small metallic representation of a palm leaf added to a military decoration that has been awarded more than one time. ETYMOLOGY: Middle English, from Old English and from Old French palme, both from Latin palma, palm of the hand, palm tree (from the shape of the tree's fronds). See pel-2 in Appendix I. to see the pel-2 info.. http://www.bartleby.com/61/roots/IE391.html
(root word) Flat; to spread. Oldest form *pel2-; variant *ple2-, colored to *pla2-, contracted to *pl-.
Derivatives include field, planet, plasma, plastic, and polka.
1. Suffixed form *pel()-tu-. field, from Old English feld, open field, from Germanic *felthuz, flat land. 2. Suffixed form *pel()-t-es- (by-form of *pel()-tu-). a. feldspar, from Old High German feld, field; b. veldt, from Middle Dutch veld, velt, field. Both a and b from Germanic *feltha-, flat land. 3. Variant form *pl-. a. Suffixed form *pl-ru-. floor, from Old English flr, floor, from Germanic *flruz, floor; b. suffixed form *pl-no-. llano, piano2, plain, planarian, plane1, plane2, plane3, planish, plano-, planula; esplanade, explain, pianoforte, from Latin plnus, flat, level, even, plain, clear. 4. Suffixed zero-grade form *p-m-. palm1, palm2, palmary, from Latin palma (< *palama), palm of the hand. 5. Possibly extended variant form *plan-. a. planet; aplanatic, from Greek plansthai, to wander (< “to spread out”); b. perhaps Germanic *flan-. flâneur, from French flâner, to walk the streets idly, from a source akin to Old Norse flana, to wander aimlessly. 6. Suffixed zero-grade form *pl-dh-. –plasia, plasma, –plast, plaster, plastic, plastid, –plasty; dysplasia, metaplasm, toxoplasma, from Greek plassein (< *plath-yein), to mold, “spread out.” 7. O-grade form *pol-. a. polynya, from Russian poly, open; b. Polack, polka, from Slavic polje, broad flat land, field. (Pokorny pel- 805.) See also extensions plk-1 and plat-.
see how the Pl switches at times to pel (or PL(vowel sound) to P(vowel sound) L sound.. the PLANTAR of plantar warts (on the soles of your feet) is related to the PALM of the palm of your hand!--and to the palm tree..
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Carpal Tunnel
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Thanks, everybody. My curiosity has been satisfied.
I didn't know anything about the etymology of the tree palm v. the hand palm--and, if they'd been connected, I figured somebody here would point out the connection. And, if not connected, well, no real surprise there. But if someone had said that handflata, for instance, had a Swedish counterpart in the tree palm, well, that would have been worth a big chuckle.
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a Swedish counterpart in the tree palm
The Swedish Palm Tree is a little known and rarely seen species of palm. Apparently, it can be seen only by the pure in heart ... and hand.
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Pooh-Bah
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It's probably similar to the North Americam Palm, or Napalm as it's commonly known.
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veteran
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veteran
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re Swedish Palm ... apparently, it can be seen only by the pure in heartThat's not a "Swedish Palm", Father Steve. That's a "palmito". :) Extract: "The comercial cultivation of "palmito" palms (from which heart of palm is extracted) began in Ecuador in 1987 and since then its expansion has been constant, having become a new export crop. ----------- Palmito cultivation is generating deforestation in extensive areas of tropical forest in several Amazonian provinces (Napo, Sucumbíos, Morona Santiago, Pastaza), as well as resulting in the disappearance of a number of forest remnants of the country's Western region." http://www.wrm.org.uy/bulletin/33/Ecuador.html
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It's probably similar to the North Americam Palm, or Napalm as it's commonly known.
I took a class from Chef Paul Prudhomme years ago in which he defined "Cajun napalm" as a mixture of fat and flour heated in a pan to about 500 degrees, used to thicken and flavour Cajun sauces. I think non-Louisiannan people call that "a roux."
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And a roux is a great-tasting concoction! I'll remember Cajun napalm, F. S. Thanks for that synonymous addition.
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