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Month: January 2017
What does “copped a serve” mean and what is the origin of the expression?
Vote #1 Danya Rose, who as far as I know has the right answer. Danya Rose’s answer to What does “copped a serve” mean and what is the origin of the expression? To my astonishment, OED does not have the phrase. It does have related phrases under cop, v. 3: “to capture, catch, lay hold […]
Do Greeks get offended when someone calls them Grecian?
There was a bit of merriment when George W Bush used the word. I actually don’t know whether Greeks in Greece know about the oddity of “Grecian”. My take, as someone bicultural: it’s not offensive, it’s just archaic; so seeing it in live use is puzzling. Because it’s archaic, I’m led to wonder whether I’m […]
Is anyone eligible to distribute ancient and classical texts commercially?
What Gwydion Madawc Williams said: Vote #1 Gwydion Madawc Williams’ answer to Is anyone eligible to distribute ancient and classical texts commercially? With one edge case as an exception. An editor does work in reconstructing the original form of an ancient text preserved in manuscripts. That work is intellectual labour, and it can end up […]
How has the word “pou” (που) been used in Greek, historically, throughout the various dialects?
God bless Khateeb, he’s actually asking me what I found in my PhD. Without me bribing him. And I’ve forgotten to reupload my thesis; Khateeb, remind me to do it if I haven’t done it in the next week. There will be some jargon here, but I’ll try to keep it high level. που (< […]
What is a four-tined fork called if a three-tined fork is a trident? Serious and not so serious answers welcomed!
quadrident. 3780 hits on Google. Here’s a commercial instance: IMERSION – Underwaters sports – SPEARFISHING SPIRIT The Coralign brand has a large variety of differents accessories tridents and quadridents to fit the threaded 6 X 100 shafts. Answered 2017-01-17 [Originally posted on http://quora.com/What-is-a-four-tined-fork-called-if-a-three-tined-fork-is-a-trident-Serious-and-not-so-serious-answers-welcomed/answer/Nick-Nicholas-5]
How can I become a field linguist and/or a historical linguist?
First part, you get the PhD. Margaret FalerSweany has got that covered. Expect to have to do at least one postdoc too. Now the fun part. How do you become an academic. Nick Nicholas’ answer to What is your personal experience with obtaining a linguistics degree? Did you run into any unexpected issues? Apart from […]
Is there a word for “time travel” using Greek or Latin parts of speech?
The Modern Greek for “time travel” is the unimaginative calque Ταξίδι στο χρόνο (“travel in time”). It does indeed use the chronos word; but taxidi is a mediaeval word which now means “travel, journey” (originally, it was “expedition”). Star Trek was originally rendered in Greek as Ταξίδι στα Άστρα “Journey to the Stars”. For a […]
How is souvlaki prepared differently in different countries?
Souvlaki – Wikipedia lists the variation of Souvlaki within Greece and Cyprus. Gyro (food) – Wikipedia speaks to gyros, which is the Greek evolution of the Doner kebab – Wikipedia. In Greece, Souvlaki properly is a skewer of meat, typically pork, and often served in pita. Gyros, which involves shaved rotisserie meat (again, typically pork) […]
To which extent was Greek a spoken language by the native population in the early Greek state in 1823?
Let’s take the Greek State as 1832, when it had fixed boundaries. I’m also going to use the pre-2010 Prefectures of Greece to break down the area of the new State. We know that Arvanitika was spoken widely in the new Greek state. We know that many who fought in the War of Independence were […]
What is the difference between athematic and irregular verbs?
https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/byti I’ll answer this for Greek. Irregular verbs are really irregular, to the extent of suppletion between different persons, and all sorts of other shenanigans. Thematic and athematic are two different classes of regular verb. The athematic class is smaller, and has more core vocabulary verbs, so we presume it to be older; it’s like […]