WotD: unsurance

[muckefuck]

1. Verunsicherung
2. veronzekering
3. inseguros
4. dessegurança
5. dessurance
6. diswiriant
8. 포현 (包險)
9. 抱險 bàoxiǎn

Notes: The inspiration for this entry (as richardthinks correctly surmised) was the name of the Austrian novelty band Erste Allgemeine Verunsicherung, which is a twist on the name of an insurance company. The German word for "insurance" can be analysed as "making sure/certain (sicher)". Inserting the negative prefix turns this into "making unsure/uncertain". Since the English and Romance words are formed similarly, more-or-less the same trick works with them. So also Welsh yswiriant (from gwir "true, certain").

Farther afield, it becomes more challenging. I'm stuck on the Irish since Gaelic prefers derivatives of árach "bail, contract". (The ultimate meaning is "something binding".) For Chinese, I swapped out the character 保 bǎo "protect, defend" for 抱 bào "embrace", yielding a novel compound meaning "embracing danger". I tried doing the same with Korean, but I'm not sure the pun will be recognisable except in the hanja version.

aadroma says he'll ponder ways to make similar puns in equally exotic languages. In the meantime, I encourage the rest of you to create your own punning coinages.

Comments

[richardthinks.livejournal.com]

Das Böse ist immer und überall.

[aadroma.livejournal.com]

I'll admit, I thought it was a typo at first until I saw "inseguros".

I'm sure I could come up with words in other languages, but at that point I'd just be making things up. :: laugh ::

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

That's all I did!

[aadroma.livejournal.com]

ROFL... well then fuck, I'm game. Lemme see what I can come up with after work.

(Part of me, upon seeing words/usage I don't recognize, doesn't immediately question it. Can you tell??)

[pne.livejournal.com]

I wonder what it would be in Greek.

"Insurance" is ασφάλιση, which looks to me as if it contains privative α- and σφαλ- "error, err" - so perhaps πανσφάλιση "all-error"?

[itchwoot.livejournal.com]

Spitalo Fatalo is such an awesome album.

[fainic-thu-fein.livejournal.com]

Céard faoi rud éigin ar nós "dí-árachas" nó "neamhárachas"?

[gorkabear.livejournal.com]

You nailed with catalan... It also sounds like "desassossec"

But in Spanish, inseguro means "unsure", like someone who is not sure of making the right decision. I'd say "desaseguro" :)

[aadroma.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, this is tough!!

JAPANESE: 保険, hoken, is "insurance". Your example in Chinese, 抱険, almost matches this pronunciation (houken), but a better match is 捕険, hoken, "grasping danger".

HEBREW: בִּטּוּחַ, batuax, is "insurance", and comes from "promised." Only certain roots can take the same CaCuaC pattern, and the best I can do is זנוח, zanuax, which at least rhymes and results in "abandoned, deserted."

BASQUE: aseguru means "insurance," so why not modify the front of a word that's clearly an import into the language? Add ez, "no", and get ezseguru. Like Spanish, similar forms of the original word can mean "secure".

CHEROKEE: ᎫᏓᎸᏙ, Gudalvdo is "insurance", and by adding the particle Ꭲ, i (which means "un-"; it is used to make "dress" into "undress," and "open" into "close" in the Cherokee language), you get ᎫᏓᎸᎢᏙ, gudalvido, "uninsurance". Interestingly, the verb that "insurance" is from can mean "to encumber," which means that its "un-" form might possibly be seen as a POSITIVE.