I've heard before Corgi and Penguin
The first is pretty definite, but I'm not at all convinced by the latter, I've seen other etymologies that were more plausible
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What are the two English language words which come directly from the Welsh language? One of the answers didn’t surprise me because I think I heard about it before in the dim and distant past, but I would never have got the other one in a month of Sundays.
I've heard before Corgi and Penguin
The first is pretty definite, but I'm not at all convinced by the latter, I've seen other etymologies that were more plausible
Well it would seem highly foolish to disagree with Susie Dent on words, but when I've read about it before, there seemed to be a bit of debate and there were a few alternative possibilities that seemed more likely to me.
On a similar topic, my mother got an interesting looking book for christmas on the origins of the English language -
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Our-Magnifi.../dp/1592404944
And apparently the author argues that there has been more of an influence on English by Welsh than you might realise in some of the quirks of English grammatical structures etc - perhaps not any more actual words though.
I'm going to read it when she's finished with it.
I am an obsessed logophile and never a day goes by without me looking up etymology of specific words and trying to work out cognates within the English language and with other languages. We all have our probems
The first recorded reference of the word 'Pen-gwins' (that we know of) was in Sir Thomas Herbert's book entitled "Some years travels into divers parts of Asia and Afrique", published in the 17th century. Although an Englishman, I note from the title page of the eponymous tome that his family motto was "Pawb yn yr arver"........
snip - 2023-01-12T154717.856.jpg
Some interesting discussion on here--
https://english.stackexchange.com/qu...s-penguin-from
How about this:
'Zaun' is a German word meaning fence and presumably encircled a homestead to keep wild animals out and to protect domestic animals and crops.
Zaun > Tuin
'Tuin' is the Dutch word for garden, which tends to be an area bounded by a fence. The German 'Z' often becomes a 'T' in Dutch and the vowel often changes. In this case, the German 'au', pronounced as in 'ow' (in English in the word 'cow') changed to the Dutch 'ui', which sounds like the Newport 'ow' as in cow.
Tuin > Town
'Tuin' in Dutch is cognate with the English suffix 'ton' and 'town' meaning the homestead or settlement often within the boundaries mentioned above.
Half and Half is a Welsh (Cardiff) thing that is primarily used in said Indian restaurant establishment, and is now spreading across England like the reintroduction of the red squirrel. I felt the need to raise the bar in this thread.
‘Cheers Drive’ (although said in Bristol apparently as well). Was in Newcastle for a City game a couple of seasons ago and said it to a taxi driver, he immediately said “You're from Cardiff”.............I did have a City scarf & bobble hat on mind.
I thought pengwyn was a bird that was named by our Breton friends (who were big into sailing at the time). Ties up with the fact that pingouin in French is a bird that can fly, albeit badly, and the word for penguin is manchot, a bird that can't fly.
So, have I solved this for all time?