Language

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Ant etymology rabbit hole

Posted May 27th, 2020. (Permalink)
Cataloged under Language, Ants, Insects and Myrmecology

Was admiring the word myrmecology (the study of ants), and got curious about its similarity to the Swedish word for ant, myra, and the Norwegian variant maur.

Started wondering about the word ant, since it’s so different. As far as I can tell, it’s an orally eroded version of the synonym emmet from the Old English ǣmete, related to the German Ameise. Myrmecology, like most “studies of”, comes from Greek, in this case múrmēx (ant).

Looked up the etymology for maur as well: the Scandinavian names come from the Old Norse maurr, so it looks like the relation to myrmecology is either coincidental or goes back to Indo-European.

Trying to make sense of an online Indo-European dictionary, the closest I got was:

Root / lemma: mai-1

English meaning: to cut down, work with a sharp instrument

[...]

2. d-extension: got. maitan `hew, hit, cut, clip', [...] ahd. mīza `Milbe' (probably to gr. μίδας `Made'), perhaps also ags. ǣ-mette, engl. ant, emmet, ahd. ā-meiza `Ameise'

So... looks to me like there’s some kind of link between King Midas (μίδας) and the word ‘ant’, but damned if I can find the link to “myrmecology”.

As a consolation prize, I’ll settle for finding out there’s a Midas ant (Myrmecia midas) living in Australia.

Quotes

The power of metaphor

Posted September 2nd, 2021. (Permalink)
Cataloged under Thinking, Language, Teaching and Metaphor

To fully appreciate the power of metaphor (and it’s more formal cousin, analogy), we must look to its oft-neglected role in science and technology. We speak of a genetic “code” or “blueprint”. We explain the structure of the atom to schoolchildren by analogy with the solar system. We think of the brain as a machine, or a computer, or a social network. These metaphors and analogies can help impart new ideas to the student and the layperson.

Metaphier and metaphrand

Posted August 31st, 2021. (Permalink)
Cataloged under Metaphor, Language, Thinking and The human body

Jaynes described a metaphor as comprising of two parts. The metaphrand is the thing to be described or understood, and the metaphier is the more familiar thing with which it is compared. The human body is a very common metaphier; we speak of the head of a table, the foot of a mountain, the face and hands of a clock, and the mouth of a river.

Indo-European ant roots

Posted August 26th, 2021. (Permalink)
Cataloged under Language and Etymology

Root / lemma: mai-1

English meaning: to cut down, work with a sharp instrument

[...]

2. d-extension: got. maitan `hew, hit, cut, clip', [...] ahd. mīza `Milbe' (probably to gr. μίδας `Made'), perhaps also ags. ǣ-mette, engl. ant, emmet, ahd. ā-meiza `Ameise'

Notes

Sordophones

Posted February 1st, 2022. (Permalink)
Cataloged under Language

Tried to find out if there is a term for when a word in one language sounds rude in another. Learned that linguists call bilingual homophones and homonyms false friends, but rudeness is not required. A Gizmodo post from 2015 asked the internet to come of with a term, and ended up with sordophone. (A practice wikipedia tells me is called a nonce word or occasionalism.)

Norwegian and English has a weird reciprocal sordophone going on with the words cook and cock vs. kuk and kokk, where the word for a person making food is false friends with a common slang word for penis.

Wonder if there’s a term for that?