From cowan@ccil.org Tue Nov 25 11:14:10 2003 Return-Path: X-Sender: cowan@mercury.ccil.org X-Apparently-To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Received: (qmail 62147 invoked from network); 25 Nov 2003 19:14:10 -0000 Received: from unknown (66.218.66.172) by m6.grp.scd.yahoo.com with QMQP; 25 Nov 2003 19:14:10 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO mercury.ccil.org) (192.190.237.100) by mta4.grp.scd.yahoo.com with SMTP; 25 Nov 2003 19:14:10 -0000 Received: from cowan by mercury.ccil.org with local (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1AOidT-00028Z-00; Tue, 25 Nov 2003 14:14:07 -0500 Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 14:14:07 -0500 To: Jorge =?iso-8859-1?Q?Llamb=EDas?= Cc: lojban@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [lojban] Re: bakyjba Message-ID: <20031125191407.GF26214@mercury.ccil.org> References: <20031125180200.GU9729@digitalkingdom.org> <20031125184043.49942.qmail@web41904.mail.yahoo.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit In-Reply-To: <20031125184043.49942.qmail@web41904.mail.yahoo.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.3.28i X-eGroups-From: John Cowan From: John Cowan X-Originating-IP: 192.190.237.100 X-Yahoo-Group-Post: member; u=212516 X-Yahoo-Profile: johnwcowan X-Yahoo-Message-Num: 21270 Jorge Llamb?as scripsit: > (I don't > recognize any of them myself, and I probably still wouldn't if I > knew what their corresponding name in Spanish was.) > How are cowberries associated with cows, BTW? They belong to the genus _Vaccinium_, and this is a classical word (not a modern calque), so the association "cowberry" is ancient. Many plants are associated with animals in ways now mysterious. AFAIK _Vaccinium_ is confined to the North Temperate Zone. The generic Spanish name FWIW appears to be arándano. Other species in Vaccinium include the lingonberry = mountain cranberry, the whortleberry = huckleberry, and the bilberries (it's possible that "blueberry" is a folk etymology of "bilberry"). > Are cranberries associated with cranes? Sort of. "Cranberry" is a half-calque of a Low German term that indeed meant "crane+berry", but the "cran" part is not perceived by anglophones as meaning "crane", and indeed "cranberry morph" is a term used by linguists for something liek the "cran-" in "cranberry", which appears to be bi-morphemic but where the first morph has no synchronic meaning. -- John Cowan jcowan@reutershealth.com At times of peril or dubitation, http://www.ccil.org/~cowan Perform swift circular ambulation, http://www.reutershealth.com With loud and high-pitched ululation.