Frog on pond or horse?

 

 

Frog on pond or horse?

 

View with patience

 

 

 

 

 

from Marilyn^^

 

 

www.joe-ks.com

 

 

 

 

 

Wordcraft Word of the Day - Etymology

Theme False Starts

 

'Apron' comes from a slippage of the n in a napron. A similar slippage can occur from other languages.

For example, in Spanish legarto means 'lizard' (or, as Johnson said, "an animal resembling a serpent, with legs added to it."). Spaniards in the New World found an animal somewhat like a large lizard or legged-snake, and named it 'the lizard of the Indies,' or el lagarto de Indias.

In pronouncing el lagarto the two adjacent l sounds, at the end of one word and the beginning of the next, would run together. Thus el-legarto was heard as ellargarto and was taken to be the name of the animal. This ellagarto went through various forms and spellings (allagarto, alagarto, alegarto, alligarta) and then added an r at the end, much as 'fellow' would become 'fella' and then 'feller'. So with the r we had alligarter, allegater, and finally the original el lagarto settled down to became the alligator.

alligator a large New-World amphibian, akin to the crocodile
alligatoring - the cracking of paint, varish etc. into a crazed pattern like alligator hide

To remember that the alligator is a New World animal, think of these Ogden Nash lines about a language purist.

 

 

 

The Purist

I give you now Professor Twist,
A conscientious scientist.
Trustees exclaimed, "He never bungles!"
And sent him off to distant jungles.
Camped on a tropic riverside,
One day he missed his loving bride.
She had, the guide informed him later,
Been eaten by an alligator.
Professor Twist could not but smile.
"You mean," he said, "a crocodile."

 

 

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