What's a calembour? It's a pun, plain and simple. We get it from the French, but it was originally the name of a jokester in German fairy stories.
I imagine this Calembour fellow was a faithful practitioner of the double entendre. Just a hunch. Actually, speaking of hunches, I imagine him as a hunchback too.
I'll go see if I can't read some of these stories. And learn German.
Not in that order.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Friday, May 21, 2010
Adamant/Diamond
Sometimes I uncover an etymological connection between words that seems quite obvious. This is usually accompanied by a self-depreciating slap to the forehead, as well as a somewhat exciting realization that revealing the history of some words might be easier than one thinks.
Of course, etymology is, apparently, not for those who only speak one language, but I nonetheless found this connection intriguing.
Adamant, as an adjective, means stern, unmoving, and unable to be persuaded. For example, "He is an adamant Leafs fan" would mean that the subject cannot be dissuaded from his fandom.
The cool part is that, if you remove the 'a' at the start of the word, it sounds a lot like 'diamond' which is, interestingly enough, a stone that is impervious to mutation.
So, the original word, which is actually from Ancient Greek, "adamas". meaning immutable, has been figuratively extended to the famously hard jewel. It isn't quite known when this transition happened, as the original work is over 4000 years old, and may have been extended to the actual stone in figurative terms long before it became a noun of its own.
I'm not sure about you, but, for me, the mere vowel at the start of 'adamant' had completely obfuscated the otherwise obvious connection between the two words.
I suppose I should sign off by saying how seeing etymological connections can be "hard", but that's just terrible. Oh well, it happened.
Of course, etymology is, apparently, not for those who only speak one language, but I nonetheless found this connection intriguing.
Adamant, as an adjective, means stern, unmoving, and unable to be persuaded. For example, "He is an adamant Leafs fan" would mean that the subject cannot be dissuaded from his fandom.
The cool part is that, if you remove the 'a' at the start of the word, it sounds a lot like 'diamond' which is, interestingly enough, a stone that is impervious to mutation.
So, the original word, which is actually from Ancient Greek, "adamas". meaning immutable, has been figuratively extended to the famously hard jewel. It isn't quite known when this transition happened, as the original work is over 4000 years old, and may have been extended to the actual stone in figurative terms long before it became a noun of its own.
I'm not sure about you, but, for me, the mere vowel at the start of 'adamant' had completely obfuscated the otherwise obvious connection between the two words.
I suppose I should sign off by saying how seeing etymological connections can be "hard", but that's just terrible. Oh well, it happened.
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