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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
I ran across this while playing a FunTrivia quiz.
13. If you're eating canapés, you're consuming a small piece of bread or a cracker with something savory on top. Had you been an ancient Greek eating a konops, what would you have been devouring? (Hint: the wrong answers won't bite you.)
Your answer: A mosquito
The etymologic journey from mosquitoes to canapés included some twists and turns. The "konopos" (mosquito) gave birth to the "konopion", the curtain around the couch to keep the mosquitoes away. Via Latin, "canapé" came into the French language, referring to the couch rather than the curtain. "Canape" was then applied to bread squares with a savory topping because of the snack's perceived resemblance to a couch. In English, the sense of "curtain" prevailed and resulted in the English word "canopy".
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Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 1,067
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 1,067 |
Interesting. An effort worthy of zmjezhd.
Last edited by The Pook; 08/18/08 02:17 AM.
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
I just love the way it works around.
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,526
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,526 |
I wondered whether this might be related to "canopic" as in "canopic jar." Wiktionary says it comes from the name of the city, Canopus. But wiki also says that 'canopy' comes from the Latin name of the Egyptian city of Canopus.
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290 |
Canopic is from Greek Κανωπος Kanōpos is a proper name. It's a city in Egypt and supposedly the name of a ship's pilot who died there from a snake bite. The etymology of Greek κωνωψ kōnōps 'mosquito' is problematic, or so says Chaintraine in his etymological dictionary of Greek. (it may be from an Egyptian word and influenced by Greek κωνος 'pine cone'.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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