Wordsmith.org: the magic of words

Wordsmith Talk

About Us | What's New | Search | Site Map | Contact Us  

Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Page 1 of 4 1 2 3 4
#88435 12/03/02 12:06 PM
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
W
Carpal Tunnel
OP Offline
Carpal Tunnel
W
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
This is not so much a question as an observation about a definition I read yesterday:

Merganser: a diving duck

Now this amused me because, if you look at the definition as being generic rather than specific, it would mean any diving duck would be a merganser.

You gotta be a pretty careful merganser when going after definitions. Definitions can be wily things when you bring 'em to the surface. They can get away from you!


#88436 12/03/02 12:16 PM
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
When I was just a sprout we had a story we read in an English class. The story took place in Australia and had a kookaburra in it. The glossary at the end of the story defined the kookaburra as a laughing jackass. This is/was a slang phrase for the bird which has a call that sounds like the braying of an ass. In a quiz we were asked to define the word kookaburra. I was the only person who was interested enough to have noticed that the creature was, in fact, a bird. This includes the teacher. I was told that my answer was wrong.


#88437 12/03/02 12:21 PM
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
W
Carpal Tunnel
OP Offline
Carpal Tunnel
W
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Did you define kookaburra as "a laughing jackass" or something like "a bird that is a laughing jackass"? It's hard to believe that you teacher wouldn't have known the kookaburra is a bird.

Still, imagine some chortling yokel taking a deep dive and someone in the crowd watching him saying, "That merganser is a kookaburra."

See, Faldage? We understand each other!


#88438 12/03/02 12:25 PM
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
W
Carpal Tunnel
OP Offline
Carpal Tunnel
W
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
"The winter diet of brant consists mainly of eelgrass, but includes sea lettuce and
sea cabbage. The summer diet includes grasses, algae, mosses, other plants, and
marine invertebrates."

OK. To learn more about this red-footed duck, I read a general reference on
Google and the above phrase. I hadn't seen the word brant before, so looked it up.
It means a type of goose. The merganser is a duck. So why is that word brant there?
Beats me. I'll go look up the url to the article and past it below in a minute.

http://www.ducks.org/waterfowling/gallery/index.asp?duck=79


#88439 12/03/02 02:05 PM
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
W
wwh Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
W
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
When is a goose a duck? When it's a merganser. Merganser is literally "sea goose".
Ein gut gebratene Gans ist eine gute Gabe Gottes.

P.S. Oh, dear. Wordwi;nd has caught me committing a folk etymology.
When a duck do? it submerges.

#88440 12/03/02 02:12 PM
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
W
Carpal Tunnel
OP Offline
Carpal Tunnel
W
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
The source below doesn't indicate that the merganser is a sea goose, but a diving goose (thought it's really a duck--and I have no idea what makes a duck a duck and a goose a gooose):

"1. merganser [n.]
|ETYM| Spanish <mergánsar>, from <mergo> a diver (Latin <mergus>, from <mergere> to
dip, dive)
+ <ánsar> goose, Latin <anser>. , Large crested fish-eating diving duck having a
slender hooked bill with serrated edges; <SYN.> fish duck, sawbill, sheldrake.
2. hooded merganser [n.]
Small North American duck with a high circular crest on the male's head; <SYN.> hooded
sheldrake, Lophodytes cucullatus.
3. American merganser [n.]
Common North American diving duck considered a variety of the European goosander;
<Also called:> Mergus merganser americanus.
4. red-breasted merganser [n.]
Widely distributed merganser of America and Europe; <SYN.> Mergus serrator. "


#88441 12/03/02 02:26 PM
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803


I got just one question:

Huh?



All seriousness aside, the defintion in the book was a laughing jackass, just that, no more. The important lesson that I did not learn (and I now realize the error of my ways) was that what I was supposed to do was to regurgitate, unprocessed, whatever it was that the teacher thought was correct.

Mea culpa(to the tune of Frere Jacques)

Mea culpa,
mea culpa,
mea ma
xima cul
pa mea maxima
culpa mea maxi
ma culpa
ma culpa.


#88442 12/03/02 02:30 PM
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
W
Carpal Tunnel
OP Offline
Carpal Tunnel
W
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Faldage,

You implied that you were the only one who realized the kookaburra was a bird.

I still don't understand what your answer was. Did you reply that the kookaburra was a laughing jackass or did you reply that the kookaburra was a bird--or even both? In other words, what was your answer that your teacher believed was incorrect?


#88443 12/03/02 02:37 PM
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
And you said we understood each other. Harrumph!®

I said that the kookaburra was a bird. The definition in the glossary associated with the story said that a kookaburra was a laughing jackass. I don't remember the story per se but I do remember that I was able to figure out that it was a bird. Whether from context in the story or from some outside reference I don't remember. The lesson I *did learn (not the above referenced lesson that I was *supposed to learn) was that authority is not always correct. This means that I will always ask, "Why question Authority?"


#88444 12/03/02 02:37 PM
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
W
wwh Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
W
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Does "xima cul" mean "baissez moi la derriere"?


Page 1 of 4 1 2 3 4

Moderated by  Jackie 

Link Copied to Clipboard
Forum Statistics
Forums16
Topics13,912
Posts229,283
Members9,179
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
Newest Members
TRIALNERRA, befuddledmind, KILL_YOUR_SUV, Heather_Turey, Standy
9,179 Registered Users
Who's Online Now
0 members (), 444 guests, and 3 robots.
Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Top Posters(30 Days)
Top Posters
wwh 13,858
Faldage 13,803
Jackie 11,613
tsuwm 10,542
wofahulicodoc 10,510
LukeJavan8 9,916
AnnaStrophic 6,511
Wordwind 6,296
of troy 5,400
Disclaimer: Wordsmith.org is not responsible for views expressed on this site. Use of this forum is at your own risk and liability - you agree to hold Wordsmith.org and its associates harmless as a condition of using it.

Home | Today's Word | Yesterday's Word | Subscribe | FAQ | Archives | Search | Feedback
Wordsmith Talk | Wordsmith Chat

© 1994-2024 Wordsmith

Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.5