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[-] Green_Bay_Guy@midwest.social 29 points 1 year ago

You could do this all day with Vietnamese. Kangaroo is bag mouse. Orca is assassin fish, giraffe is a long-necked deer. Etc.

[-] enthusiasticamoeba@lemmy.ml 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Dutch has a lot of good ones!

Hippo: Nile Horse (nijlpaard)

Leopard: Lazy Horse (luipaard)

Sea urchin: Sea Hedgehog (zee egel)

Seal: Sea Dog (zeehond)

Skunk: Stink Animal (stinkdier)

Turtle: Shield Toad (Schildpad)

Slug: Naked Snail (Naaktslak)

Porcupine: Spiky Pig (Stekelvarken)

Edit: formatting

[-] lugal@sopuli.xyz 10 points 1 year ago

Leopard: Lazy Horse (luipaard)

I've looked it up and apparently leo is lion and part is leopard or panther. So it's a lion leopard. English and Dutch have the same etymology, and German too, all your examples are the same in German.

[-] napalminjello@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago

Are you implying that the word for leopard is compounded from the word for leopard???? How did they get the first word for leopard if they didn't have a word for leopard?????

[-] lugal@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 year ago

Correction: it's male leopard. It surprised me as well. It's ultimately from Indo-Iranian origin.

https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/pardus#Latin

[-] Haus@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago

The Dutch are sneaky bastards (stiekemeklootzakken).

[-] WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

There are only two things I can't stand in this world: People who are intolerant of other people's cultures, and the Dutch.

[-] Pinklink@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago

While this is kind of fun, it’s also kind of frustrating. Like when Merriam Webster tries to define a word for me by using the word. Frustrating: having a quality or qualities that frustrates.

[-] Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 1 year ago

Hippopotamus comes from the Greek words hippos (horse) and potamos (river). So literally "river horse".

[-] redcalcium@lemmy.institute 4 points 1 year ago

So this is why Indonesian names for hippo, sea urchin and seal are weird af. They are actually direct translation from their dutch names!

[-] CurlyMoustache@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Norwegian

Hedgehog: Needle Swine (pinnsvin/

[-] saltnotsugar@lemm.ee 7 points 1 year ago

Wow that’s a big bouncing animal! Kind of reminds me of-
“A mouse. Like a big mouse with a bag.”
…Good idea sir.

[-] WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Sylvester agrees.

[-] HotDogFingies@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago

That's adorable

[-] lugal@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 year ago

German has Killerwahl (killer whale) for orca

[-] nudnyekscentryk@szmer.info 4 points 1 year ago
[-] lugal@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 year ago

I didn't know. So the German might be a calque from the English

[-] DrQuint@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Somewhere, out there, there's a language that does NOT have any funny details like this. Those who speak it have the maximum enjoyment potential when learning out.

this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2023
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