On Sat, Oct 13, 2012 at 01:56:04PM -0000, Michael Chapman wrote: > What I find fascinating is words that are either absent, or if present > rarely used but replaced by compounds. > > Things like 'foot-fingers' (French) and 'hand-shoes' (German) > and by comparison 'sibling' (English) which is rare* (certainly, > compared with it's German equivalent (though I stand to be > corrected)). The French have real toes, called 'orteilles'. Italians OTOH don't have toes, but foot-fingers, 'dita del piede'.
Hand-shoes also exist in Dutch, there's no other word for them. What I've always found funny is the English way of using 'a pair of' for what amounts to a single item... Reminds me that I need a new pair of foot-gloves :-) Ciao -- FA A world of exhaustive, reliable metadata would be an utopia. It's also a pipe-dream, founded on self-delusion, nerd hubris and hysterically inflated market opportunities. (Cory Doctorow) _______________________________________________ Sursound mailing list Sursound@music.vt.edu https://mail.music.vt.edu/mailman/listinfo/sursound
