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Joined: Jun 2006
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295 |
Some may get a headache from my comparative posts, but as running threads are sparse I post this one anyway.
From a friend:"Here are a few shots of the Acorn".(her six weeks old baby boy; the mother is from American and Dutch parenthood.) She added:
"Isn't it funny that Acorn in Dutch means squirrel, and in English squirrels EAT acorns!"
(actually acorn(eikel)does not mean squirrel but in Dutch eekhoorn(squirrel) is pronounced: acorn
The pronounciation is alike, yet the etymologies have nothing in common.
acornO.E. ęcern "nut," common Gmc. (cf. O.N. akarn, Du. aker, Low Ger. ecker
"acorn," Goth. akran "fruit"), originally the mast of any forest tree, and ultimately related to (via notion of "fruit of the open or unenclosed land") to O.E. ęcer "open land," Goth.
akrs "field," O.Fr. aigrun "fruits and vegetables" (from a Gmc. source). The sense gradually restricted in Low Ger., Scand. and Eng. to the most important of the forest produce for feeding swine, the mast of the oak tree. Spelling changed by folk etymology from oak (O.E. ac) + corn.
squirrel
1327, from Anglo-Fr. esquirel, O.Fr. escurel (Fr. écureuil), from V.L. *scuriolus, dim. of *scurius "squirrel," variant of L. sciurus, from Gk. skiouros "a squirrel," lit. "shadow-tailed," from skia "shadow" + oura "tail." Perhaps the original notion is "that which makes a shade with its
tail." The verb meaning "to hoard up, store away" (as a aquirrel does nuts) is first recorded 1939; squirrely is from 1925. The O.E. word was acweorna, which survived into M.E. as aquerne.
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
and this sentence segment jumped out at me--originally the mast of any forest tree--
i am reading 1491--about life in the americas before the european's arrived, and came across the term mast (defined in 1491 as "beechnuts, acorns and other fruit and edible nuts at part of the 'litter' on a forest floor)"--and this meaning of mast one totally new to me!
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Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 1
stranger
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stranger
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 1 |
Interesting. seeing the latin root, one wonders if the word squirrel and scurry are related...
- Mr. C
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
And of course, I can only relate all this to eggcorn 
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Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295 |
scurry (v.) 1810, perhaps from hurry-scurry (1732), a reduplication of hurry. scuttle (v.1) "scamper, scurry," c.1450, probably related to scud (q.v.). hurry (v.) 1590, first recorded in Shakespeare, who used it often, perhaps a W.Midlands sense of M.E. hurren "to vibrate rapidly, buzz," from P.Gmc. *khurza "to move with haste" (cf. M.H.G. hurren "to whir, move fast," O.Swed. hurra "to whirl round"), which also perhaps is the root of hurl. The noun is 1600, from the verb. Reduplicated form hurry-scurry is from 1732. AnnaStrophic: And of course, I can only relate all this to eggcorn.: You mean to eggcornize the acorn?(  sponsored by Tomahawks Squirrel Traps ? )  It's a very good one btw , the closest to eggcorn eggcorn you can get (sorry, I was slow to see this) of Troy : I looked up in Van Dale, the Dutch holy language scripture and found the word 'mast' still alive in the same meaning as the English word 'mast'(same pron.): "swine food". Maybe only hunters and foresters still know the word.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154 |
I have heard of beechmast (beech mast?) but didn't clue in that it might mean other trees might have mast as well. ha, I've mastered another word! 
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