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#193282 - 09/30/10 04:46 PM Marabout
BranShea Offline
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 06/23/06
Posts: 5249
Loc: Netherlands, the Hague
Just a small question on the subject of marabout. I only knew it to be a bird and in the before worldwar II spelling we wrote it as such. Now it is marabou. The Marabouts must have stolen the word from the marabouts, no?

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#193284 - 09/30/10 08:14 PM Re: Marabout [Re: BranShea]
Candy Offline
Pooh-Bah

Registered: 09/21/10
Posts: 1705
Loc: down under
Interesting....I don't know the word with the 'T'

but so often 'old' words have redundant letters which are getting dropped now.

like colour>>color

Americanisms.

I try not to let it happen in my writing...the words just don't look as good.

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#193288 - 10/01/10 08:22 AM Re: Marabout [Re: BranShea]
zmjezhd Offline
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 08/13/05
Posts: 3269
Loc: R'lyeh
The birds name came from the Arabic word (via Moroccan dialect to French) mirabūt 'a kind of holy man; also the stork' based on similarities between how the cleric dressed and what the stork looked like. The -t was there and pronounced. Not sure if it got dropped in the French pronunciation.
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Ceci n'est pas un seing.

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#193317 - 10/02/10 01:49 PM Re: Marabout [Re: zmjezhd]
BranShea Offline
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 06/23/06
Posts: 5249
Loc: Netherlands, the Hague
Yes zmjezhd, these days I look up that part too. mirabūt. Also read that it meant: from Arabic murbi, posted, stationed. Only I suppose the bird was there before the holy man ever was. And they both have a posted stature I suppose.
That's why the 'who took who's word' was funny to think about.

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#193319 - 10/02/10 02:13 PM Re: Marabout face a vis [Re: BranShea]
zmjezhd Offline
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 08/13/05
Posts: 3269
Loc: R'lyeh
Only I suppose the bird was there before the holy man ever was.

Sure thing. Not that I meant different, but the word is not that old in English, French, or Arabic.
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Ceci n'est pas un seing.

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#210638 - 04/26/13 05:15 AM Re: Marabout face a vis [Re: BranShea]
zkwaywow Offline
stranger

Registered: 04/26/13
Posts: 3
The shortest answer is doing. All things are difficult before they are easy.

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Edited by Jackie to delete commercial link.


Edited by Jackie (04/26/13 03:06 PM)
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