WotD: ferret

[muckefuck]

1. das Frettchen
2. het fret
3. el hurón
4. la fura
5. le furet
6. y ffured
7. an firéad
8. 흰족제비
9. 白鼬 báiyòu, 雪貂 xǔediāo

Notes: All of the European terms derive ultimately from Latin fur "thief". Although the Romance languages show suffix variation, the Germanic and Celtic terms all derive from the French form or one close to it. (E.g Old French furet > MHG frette > Mod. German Frettchen [with additional diminutive ending].) The borrowed nature of Irish firéad, for instance, is clearly demonstrated by the fact that the /e:/ is not subject to breaking in West Muskerry (a phonetic process that affects most all native words).

It's a different story in East Asia, which presumably didn't have the same history of polecat domestication. The Korean term literally translates as "white weasel"; I've also seen 흰담비 "white marten". There's parallel variation in Chinese: 雪貂 xǔediāo is literally "snow marten", whereas 白鼬 báiyòu means "white weasel".

Comments

[bunj.livejournal.com]

So, when is WotD going to do meerkat?

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Assemble your own by clicking on the language labels in this Wikipedia article! (To my surprise, we seem to be the only ones who say "meerkat"--not even the Dutch opt in!)

[bunj.livejournal.com]

1. Erdmännchen
2. Stokstaartje
3. Suricata
4. Suricata
5. Suricate
6.
7.
8.
9. 狐獴

Since they didn't seem to have Welsh, Irish, or Korean, I'm adding an extra:

10. Nelisormimangusti

Well done!

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

For Irish, this terminology page gives míorchat, which is a half-translated calque from the English. (AFAIK, míor has no meaning in modern Irish, but cat is "cat".) From what I can find online, Welsh seems to use meercat, but I'll check my dictionary when I get home. And Korean uses 미어캣 /miekhays/ which--as you can see--is also a borrowing of the English (ultimately Afrikaans) word.

Re: Well done!

[bunj.livejournal.com]

My favorite, though, is the Finnish. I'll have to check my dictionary when I get home, but what I've translated from online sources is "galloping finger mongoose".

Re: Well done!

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Much as I do love that gloss, professional integrity compels me to point out that neli- can also be a combining form of neljä "four".

Re: Well done!

[bunj.livejournal.com]

Man, you ruin all my linguo-fun. Next you'll be picking apart all of my Basque/Atlantean glosses.

[itchwoot.livejournal.com]

The Japanese sort of use the English word: ミーアキャット
And it's Mirket in Turkish.

You're not alone! ;)