Tagged language (Notes)

TIL I learned that the word "senate" is derived from the Latin word "senex" meaning "old man".

I know this sounds patronizing but the Spanish word for small (pequeño/a) is super cute.

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?"

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

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.

First practical duolingo result: I now understand that the chihuahua was saying "I want Taco Bell"

TIL that the chinese word for penguin literally translates as "business goose".

My my, that duolingo owl is aggressive, isn't it.

Okay, so duolingo is kind of fun.

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).

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").

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."

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!

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