28 November 2008

Words for the day

Via the A Welsh View blog, this list of obscure English words from the UK Telegraph:
A is for… Avocado, which comes from Nahuatl, a language spoken by the Aztecs. Their name for it, ahuacatl, also meant ''testicle".
P is for… Penguin, a compound of two Welsh words, pen and gwyn, which mean ''head" and ''white" - even though penguins have black heads. It is likely that 'penguin' was at one time the name of similar, now extinct bird which had a white patch near its bill.
S is for… Sabotage. Supposed to derive from the tendency of striking workers to damage machinery by throwing shoes into it - sabot being an old French word for a wooden shoe.
X is for… Xebec, a little vessel with three masts, from the Arabic shabbak, a small warship.
Rico says click the post title for the whole list.

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