Tagged language (Notes)

• Oct 30, 2021, 11:12 AM -04:00

  TIL I learned that the word "senate" is derived from the Latin word "senex" meaning "old man".
• Sep 18, 2021, 1:51 PM -04:00

  I know this sounds patronizing but the Spanish word for small (pequeño/a) is super cute.
• Aug 31, 2021, 6:02 PM -04:00

  I've been doing Spanish on Duolingo since December of last year, and I STILL have trouble mentally translating "Yo tengo" as "I have" as opposed to "You tango?"
• Aug 8, 2021, 7:57 PM -04:00

  I find the Spanish tendency to drop the subject of a sentence when it's implied by the format of the verb to be both jarring and admirably efficient
• Apr 12, 2021, 7:12 PM -04:00

  I've of the things I have to deal with in Spanish: 'sombrero' means 'hat', and I sort of already knew this, but I always associated it with a very specific kind of hat, not hats in general.
• Mar 29, 2021, 11:53 PM -04:00

  First practical duolingo result: I now understand that the chihuahua was saying "I want Taco Bell"
• Feb 9, 2021, 3:13 PM -05:00

  TIL that the chinese word for penguin literally translates as "business goose".
• Jan 6, 2021, 12:44 PM -05:00

  My my, that duolingo owl is aggressive, isn't it.
• Jan 2, 2021, 9:47 PM -05:00

  Okay, so duolingo is kind of fun.
• Jul 10, 2020, 10:16 AM -04:00

  TIL I learned that "boat", "bait", "bite", "bolt", and "bitter" are all cognates, from a PIE word meaning to strike or split (the connection with boat appears to be that one used to make them by hollowing out split tree trunks).
• Jul 3, 2020, 7:32 AM -04:00

  TIL that the "-ly" suffix commonly added to words in English to denote an adverb comes from the word "like" (still existing in the word "ladylike", for example). So "slowly" came from "slow-like" and "carefully" came from "careful-like" (possibly explaining the double "l").
• Jun 30, 2020, 8:49 AM -04:00

  TIL that "marshmallow" is actually a very old word, derived from the Old English word "mersc-mealwe" describing a "kind of mallow plant (Althea officinalis) which grows near salt marshes."
• May 28, 2020, 9:42 PM -04:00

  TIL from @englishhistpod that Wales and Welsh both come from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning "foreigner", which is ironic given that the Welsh were the native Britons and the Anglo-Saxons were the invaders.  Also: the wall in Cornwall and the wal in walnut mean "foreign" as well!
• Dec 6, 2019, 2:21 PM -05:00

  Learning about Indo-European migration on  @englishhistpod and it sometimes feels like I'm listening to DnD prep or superhero origin stories