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>>>Regarding “quemarse las pestañas,†before Grant offered the idea of the origin coming from burning of the eyelashes from sitting too close to a candle, I thought that it might have come from the idea that the friction generated by the eyes going back and forth so furiously while reading could cause the eyelashes catch fire.<<<
Gmlile, could be. This phrase always made me think of the candle explanation as well, sort of reminiscent of the word lucubrate. But I think I recall a native Spanish speaker giving me a somewhat different explanation. I'll check.
Ovz, remind me not to apply for THAT job! Where'd you hear that origin?
Thank you for your reply, Martha, as it motivated me to do some memory work. Actually I read this particular version in Raymond Chen's blog, http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2005/11/16/493389.aspx. Since all etymology attributes origin of the phrase to Microsoft most probably this is where they took it from. I don't recall MS being in actual dog food business 🙂
martha said:
>>>> mariposa, Schmetterling, papillon, farfalla, vlinder
(If memory serves, Schmetterling has something to do with butter and the idea of these creatures hanging out at butter churns. But then, these days, my memory doesn't always serve.)
I just read that the Butterfly in Germany was the embodiment of a witch in the ancient old days. As the story goes they were feeding on cream. The German word ‘Schmetten' is East Central German for ‘Cream', and has a relation with the Russian ‘Ñметана', Polish ‘śmietana', and Czech 'smetana'. All names for high-fat milk products like sour cream. Earlier German names for the Butterfly were ‘Milkthief' or ‘Milkstealer'. ‘Molkendieb' is still the German word for the Cabbage White Butterfly.
Edit: Typo...cant afford a typo in a forum like this...although English is only my second language... 🙂
Here's my submission for Greg Pliska's “Country Kitschin‘†bad pun-fest.
[Refresher: The challenge is to fill in the blank in a sentence with the name of a country so that the spoken sentence makes sense.]
Said the comedian to the returning crowd, “If you think I killed you LAST night, wait 'til [blank] TONIGHT!â€
Anyone? Anyone?
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - a day later - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The country is Liberia. Get it? Phonetically; "...wait 'til I bury ya tonight!"
D'oh!
Hey Guys,
Love the show.
In regards to the word "tump" being southern. I think there is another niche that might be involved.
I learned to sail boats in Pennsylvania. Every year we had "tump day" on which we would intentionally overturn the sailboat in order to practice "righting" boat. These were normally rather small one or two person boats
So I think the term can sometimes be used north of the Mason-Dixon 😉
thanks,
Shawn
Rockwall, Texas
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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