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If you speak German, English, and French you may have found the following peculiar as well.
This is about a flower and what it is named in those three languages. I wonder how the names developed. I am talking about the dandelion.
Dandelion (flower)
That sure sounds like the french for: Dent de lion
Which translates into the English: Tooth of a lion
Which translates into the German: Zahn eines Löwen
or better: Löwenzahn ( which is also the German word for dandelion)
However, the French word for that flower is "pissenlit".
Was this flower EVER named "dentdelion" in French( or something like this)? If not, why did the name so seemingly develop from French into several other languages but was never used in France or other French speaking countries?
Some of what I saw from my cyber expedition:
dentdelion was Old French, referring to the sharp and toothy leaves of the plant, and was root of these modern usages:
dent-de-lion, French
diente de león, Spanish
löwenzahn, German
dandelion, English
pissenlit, another modern French for same plant, came from the Old French pisse-en-lict, referring to some side effect of drinking its juice as medicine.
The English people did not stop at dandelion either- there are swine's snout, priest's crown, telltime, each seeming to challenge you to follow another pathway of etymology. And the list surely will grow and grow à la dandelions if you dig into more languages.
Thanks, Karsten , because when next time I might set out to murder these things off of my lawn, I might stop to look at them and enjoy them a little, what with all the things imagined out of them, and then murder but more gently.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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