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stranger
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stranger
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Asked a Pakistani at an airport what they'd call the British, any epithets, kind or unkind. He said politely that the British were called the Urdu word for white, gora (sp?). Is that related to our the word Angora?
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Joined: Aug 2005
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
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I doubt it. Angora is from the city name in Turkey: Ankara (called Ankura in Classical Greek probably from Hittite Ankuwasha). The Hindi-Urdu adjective gor 'white' is probably from Sanskrit gaura 'white, shining'.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Angora goats give us Mohair yarn, Angora yarn is from rabbits.
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Joined: Apr 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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>Angora [fur] is from rabbits.
and, only coincidentally, is white?!
-ron o.
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Joined: Oct 2005
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addict
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addict
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 557 |
>Angora [fur] is from rabbits.
and, only coincidentally, is white?!
Angora [wool] (seriously) from white rabbits is easier to dye, but the natural colors from non-white rabbits are also valued.
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Joined: Aug 2005
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
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and, only coincidentally, is white?!
There are a lot of coinkydinkies in cyberspace. If you were to argue for the words to be cognate, you'd have to (1) explain the an- prefix in Hittite (and maybe Greek) forms, (2) the correspondence of initial Sanskrit gV- with Hittite k-, (3) why a city in Anatolia came to be called 'white', (4)how the name of the city came to be associated with goats and rabbits, and (5) Hittite has a sh, Greek a r, and the Sanskrit form an r so you'd have to explain why the r in Sanskrit does not reflect a PIE r as it typically does, but a s.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Well , you link these 'coinkydinkies'so easily that it becomes quite credible that 'gora' can be associated with 'angora'.
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Joined: Aug 2005
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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it becomes quite credible that 'gora' can be associated with 'angora'.
But why stop there. Russian гора (gora) 'mountain' must be connected too; think 'mountain goat' and English ghoul because all ghosts are pale. And then there's the inventor of the internets, former VP Al Gore. His name must mean mohair which in turn is etymolgized as mo' hair than, for example, former POTUS Gerald Ford. Yes, throwing out the comparative-historical method by means of which the histories of words are coaxed out to the winds, leaves plenty of time for the free association school of all words are connected. The patron saint of this movement is Isidore of Seville whose Origines which see. It's no coinkydinky that Isidore is the patron saint of internet; vide Gore supra. Enjoy!
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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lolwut? 
formerly known as etaoin...
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2006
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 It's just impressive ZMD.
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