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Always amazed about how from the source of a word so many at first sight not connecting words come heaped together. The first word cynosure produced half a zoo.(if you count each dog mentioned seperately) That all sorts of dogs came out of it is understandable in conncetion with the planetary origin . But what about the canary and the caterpillar? A microdog turning into a butterfly? On the fifth day we have: all kinds of dogs caterpllar canary cat (chatoyant is private for the cat) rooster dragon bull  (pretty poor zoo)
Last edited by BranShea; 02/02/07 11:05 AM.
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Hoo boy, you ain't kiddin':
The term is derived from Latin Cynosura (Ursa Minor), from Greek kynosoura (dog's tail), ultimately
from the Indo-European root kwon- (dog) that is also the source of canine, chenille (from French chenille: caterpillar, literally, little dog), cynic, kennel, canary, hound, dachshund, and corgi.]
I hadn't looked at it yet; thanks!
From the "other" OED (prize of half a chewed doggie bone to whoever figures that out):
canary
1584, of the wine; 1655, of the songbirds (short for Canary-bird, 1576), from Fr. canarie, from Sp. canario, from L. Insula Canaria "Canary Island," largest of the Fortunate Isles, lit. "island of dogs," (canis, gen. canarius) since large dogs lived there. Hence, the name of the little bird from the island. The name was extended to the whole island group (Canariæ Insulæ) by the time of Arnobius (c.300).
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My thanks go to you! Jackie. I never thought of looking up canary.  I've been there once. Can't remember having seen one dog on Dog- island nor any canary in the wild. Must have been all packed up in little cages and sent abroad.
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Pooh-Bah
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You know I was going to offer today's word, chatoyant, as a hogwash round a few months ago but ultimately decided that it's actual definition would be too easy to pick out from among the riff raff. Anyway, so far the theme seems to be animal-related words beginning with C.
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dragoon
[From French dragon (dragon, to dragoon).]
dragon
A Dutch word is written exactly alike, but dragon stands for a green kitchen herb (Engl. tarragon) of the Artemisia famliy. (good combination freshly used with chicken) .
Cultivated in kitchengardens, growing in the wild in Greece for certain .
Dragoon also found its way to the lowland- language as dragonder : old word for soldier.
Dragon.
From M.L. tragonia, from Byzantine Gk. tarchon, from Arabic tarkhon, from a non-Arabic source, perhaps Gk. drakon (from drakontion "dragonwort"). Eastern European plant of the wormwood genus (Artemisia Dracunculus), whose aromatic leaves were used for flavoring (especially vinegar). Cf. Sp. taragona, It. targone, Fr. estragon.
Last edited by BranShea; 02/01/07 03:53 PM.
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dragoon
The carbines that dragoons carried were called dragons. Grenadiers and fusiliers used to carry grenades (cf pomegranate) and fusils (light muskets). Cuirassiers wore cuirasses; lancers carried lances; chausseurs and Jägers chased or hunted. Then there's the hats they wore: czapkas, busbies, bearskins, shakos, etc.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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The carbines that dragoons carried were called dragons.
De karabijnen die dragonders droegen werden genoemd dragons.
I really wanted to put these sentences together, so similar English can be to Dutch. (only the last two words had to exchange places)
But it shows how English needs less space to make the sentence.
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addict
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That brings to mind some mild elation upon, despite not knowing ten words of Dutch at the time, A. could easily read an Amsterdam street sign. It was one with the no-parking symbol and [the spelling may be off a bit] "LAANGER DAN 1/2 HUR". 
ÅΓª╥┐↕§
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De karabijnen die dragonders droegen werden genoemd dragons.
A beautiful language. I love the velar, uvular, and glottal quality of its fricatives.
so similar English can be to Dutch
English and Dutch are quite close, both being varieties of Low German. Only Frisian is considered to be closer to English.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Quote:
English and Dutch are quite close, both being varieties of Low German. Only Frisian is considered to be closer to English.
Could you explain this a little more? The few links I have, such as
http://www.bartleby.com/61/indoeuro.html and
http://softrat.home.mindspring.com/germanic.html show English and Low German both being part of the West Germanic family, but do not show English as a variety of Low German. Unless I'm misunderstanding what is meant by "variety", which seems quite likely.
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