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#162043 09/20/06 12:04 PM
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While watching the Inspector Lindley series on PBS two sundays ago, the word 'mokita' was spray painted on a wall. It was the clue that broke the mystery.

I found the meaning for "mokita": something, especially a secret, that everyone knows but nobody talks about. But I have not been able to find where the word comes from.

In Spanish we have a term, 'mosquita muerta', which means, literally, a dead fly; one that gets swatted, is stunned and lays dormant, but then flies off. It describes a person that is seen but not heard and is always listening to what is being said; then goes off and gossips about what has been heard. I suppose the English translation would be a "fly on the wall." I thought the difference in spelling mokita/mosquita was not that important.

Can you tell me where this very interesting word comes from?

#162044 09/20/06 01:09 PM
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#162045 09/20/06 01:36 PM
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Any specifics forthcoming re. its origins? 'Papuan' is pretty broad.

#162046 09/20/06 03:02 PM
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well, if you insist
-joe kilivili

#162047 09/20/06 03:46 PM
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From the article:
In every instance I've found, mokita is still glossed

Is this usage of glossed related to the word glossary? Er--reading that, I now realize that that's a pretty stupid question. I guess what I'm really asking is how did the word glossed, in this sense, come into use?

#162048 09/20/06 04:52 PM
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interesting question..
in this sense, gloss is actually a variant of the noun gloze, from L. glossa, a word needing explanation, hence later the explanation itself; and so a glossary is a collection of such glosses.

the other gloss is related to Dutch gloos, a gleaming, and Swiss glossa, to gleam; ultimately from MHG.

all credit to OED2.

#162049 09/20/06 11:43 PM
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From the Greek glo:ssa 'tongue, language'.


Ceci n'est pas un seing.
#162050 09/26/06 01:24 PM
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Have you ever heard the expression "the secret of Punch"? In italian (il segreto di Pulcinella) and, I guess, in french (le secret di Polichinelle), it has a very similar meaning of mokita (viz. the secret that everyone knows but no one talks about)

#162051 09/26/06 10:48 PM
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Hi Rodolfo, welcome.
In English, or at least in Canada the secret of punch is vodka.

#162052 09/27/06 11:45 AM
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Man, y'all're makin' me laugh this morning, between Branshea's senectitutde, Anna's "dirty little secret" and now Zed's too! Thanks!


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