Content tagged with “language”

There are 9 item(s) tagged with “language” on this site.

Other tags used by these items: french, geography, latin, idiom, dutch

-cum-
Explanation
April 15, 2022
132

“ This is a prepositional phrase from Latin which means ‘with.’ So ‘X-cum-Y’ means ‘X with Y.’ Incidentally, this is where the degree honors come from: cum laude: ‘with praise’ magna cum laude: ‘with great praise’ summa cum laude: ‘with highest praise’ ”

Diacritic
Stuff I Looked Up
Explanation
March 7, 2023
90

“ This is an accented character, which you mostly see in languages other than U.S. English. French, for example, uses several diacritics, like in ‘façade’ and ‘café’. Vietnamese uses accented characters in almost every word. ”

Diphthong
Stuff I Looked Up
Explanation
February 27, 2023
205

“ This is the phonetic sound that results when two vowels are next to each other: ‘ai’ and ‘ea’ and ‘ou,’ for example. It’s pronounced ‘diff-thong.’ ”

Geographic Metonym
Stuff I Looked Up
Explanation
December 28, 2021
316

“For example, if often takes the form of a place name being used to refer to (1) a significant event that happened at that place; or (2) an organization, institution, industry, or concept associated with that place. Examples: ‘The White House’ to refer to a presidential administration ‘Wall Street’…”

“Je Ne Sais Quoi”
Stuff I Looked Up
Explanation
January 15, 2022
76

“ French for ‘I don’t know what.’ It means some quality that you find appealing, but cannot describe in words. ”

Kill
Stuff I Looked Up
Explanation
October 1, 2024
153

“‘Kill’ is a borrowed word from Dutch. In that language it means ‘body of water’ or, more often, ‘creek.’ Thus, names like Fresh Kills, West Kill, Peeksill, Fishkill, usually refer to a nearby body of water. This usage is common in Upstate New York. Oddly, the Catskill Mountains might be a…”

-ville
Stuff I Looked Up
Explanation
September 8, 2021
289

“It’s a French suffix meaning ‘city,’ ‘town,’ or ‘farm.’ The French were allies during the American Revolution. From Wikipedia : France’s help was a major and decisive contribution towards the United States’ eventual victory and independence in the war. This led to positive French sentiment after…”