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My favorite piece-of-land word is "gore," which is either a triangular parcel formed where roads intersect at an acute angle, or a narrow strip of land (usually
by jmkb 5y ago
My favorite piece-of-land word is "gore," which is either a triangular parcel formed where roads intersect at an acute angle, or a narrow strip of land (usually also an acute triangle) of uncertain ownership resulting from inaccurate surveying. It's derived from the Old English word for spear, which also came to mean stab, and a stab wound, and eventually blood-n-guts in general.
- acheron 5y agoYep. Old English word for spear was "gar". One vegetable was related to the leek, but they described the clove as spear-shaped: the gar-leek. https://www.etymonline.com/word/garlic https://www.etymonline.com/word/garlic
- throwaway894345 5y agoPeople in this thread might be interested in the History of English Podcast. I highly recommend it if you're interested in etymology and/or history: https://historyofenglishpodcast.com https://historyofenglishpodcast.com
- mellavora 5y agoAnd interestingly enough, the Swedish word for the fish which is called "pike" in English is "gär". Lots of Nordic words in old English.
- kjs3 5y agoAlso interesting is we (US, at least) have a fish called a 'gar' that looks similar to a pike, but isn't technically. Pike are family Esocidae and gar are family Lepisosteidae.
- bivargen 5y agoNo, it’s not, the fish is called ”gädda”. The swedish cognate to gar would be ger, which has the same meaning of acute angle/point.
- jmkb 5y agoHah. I assume the English were looking at the budding shoot (aka "garlic scape" [0]) when they named it, whereas the Germans were looking at the knobby root (Knoblauch = knob leek). [0] https://ediblejersey.ediblecommunities.com/recipes/garlic-scapes https://ediblejersey.ediblecommunities.com/recipes/garlic-sc...