Mangled and abused words and phrases
- Thread starter Humpback
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Nah. Even with the Americans trading with Adolph for the first two years of the war, we kept them out!
Not enough to argue over really. The way the world economy is going I expect we'll all have to learn Chinese soon enough.
And FWIW I still spell it "sulpher" and "grey."
And FWIW I still spell it "sulpher" and "grey."
Right. And the sun still never sets on the empire eh?
Yup - only we call it the Commonwealth now
Americans bastardising the English language in general does my head in.
Works both ways though. I still cain't stomache the Englishization of "catsup" into "ketchup."
Right. And the sun still never sets on the empire eh?
Empire? I think we had one of them once.
A Frenchman whose name I can't remember now once said that the reason the sun never set on the British Empire was that God didn't trust an Englishman in the dark
I do like etymology
...Probably Malay kicap, fish sauce, possibly from Chinese (Cantonese) k-chap, equivalent to Chinese (Mandarin) qié eggplant + Chinese (Mandarin) zh
, sap, gravy.
Word History: The word ketchup exemplifies the types of modifications that can take place in borrowing both of words and substances. The source of our word ketchup may be the Malay word kchap, possibly taken into Malay from the Cantonese dialect of Chinese. Kchap, like ketchup, was a sauce, but one without tomatoes; rather, it contained fish brine, herbs, and spices. Sailors seem to have brought the sauce to Europe, where it was made with locally available ingredients such as the juice of mushrooms or walnuts. At some unknown point, when the juice of tomatoes was first used, ketchup as we know it was born. But it is important to realize that in the 18th and 19th centuries ketchup was a generic term for sauces whose only common ingredient was vinegar. The word is first recorded in English in 1690 in the form catchup, in 1711 in the form ketchup, and in 1730 in the form catsup. All three spelling variants of this foreign borrowing remain current.
From: Link
So, whether it's ketchup or catsup*, it's been taken from its root and then mangled and abused by some Johnny-come-lately's to fit their own purpose(s)
.* Surely catsup is a method of hydration employed by felines?
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I do like etymology
From: Link
So, whether it's ketchup or catsup*, it's been taken from its root and then mangled and abused by some Johnny-come-lately's to fit their own purpose(s)
* Surely catsup is a method of hydration employed by felines?
Funny but the sauce described there seems more like the history I was taught for worcetershire sauce. Catsup has never contained fish sauce here. For that matter it's very name (the alternate name anyway) "Sauce American" with a French pronuciation would indicate it was invented here.
And during the height of the Roman Empire Greek was the international trade lanquage (oddly, not Latin) Today English is the established international language because first the British Empire and later (after WWII) the American influence made and kept it so. However if we are replaced by China (or any country other than an English speaking one) that will likely change as it has repeatedly throughout history.
Ironic that you mentioned Spanish as that language (being probably the even more geographically widespread) has also evolved into several different dialects. One of those, Puerto Ricam, is a definit American (or Anglican) Spanish; not just words but more notablt rules of grammar or different in Puerto Rico than the rest os the Spanish speaking world.
I assumed the name meant it was develpped in Worcetershire. Does Yorkshire Pudding contain Yorkshire?
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