• hakase@lemm.ee
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    2 days ago

    This is an example of folk etymology. The original word was Spanish cucaracha, but English speakers couldn’t make anything meaningful of that when they borrowed it into English, and so they folk etymologized it into cock “male chicken” and roach “a type of fish”, that sounds similar enough to cucaracha to be reasonable.

    The same thing happened to Cayo Hueso “Bone Key” as “Key West”, for example.

    • TriflingToad@sh.itjust.works
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      1 day ago

      I hate that THAT is acceptable but when I combine “no one” to “noone” someone HAS to call me out for it and act like English never changes to become easier

      it’s extremely petty but I’m still mad about it

    • Thorry84@feddit.nl
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      2 days ago

      The name for the insect probably originated in the Caribbean. Then brought over by the Portuguese and transferred to Spanish. The English got it from the Spanish, where other languages like French and Dutch got it from the Portuguese.

      In English it went from the Spanish cacarucha to the English cacarootch. Which later changed to cockroche and eventually became cockroach.

      The original Caribbean word was most likely kakalaka. This went to cacalacca in early Portuguese and then into the Spanish cacarucha. Interesting enough the newer Portuguese word of caroucha was based on the Spanish word. So the word went from Portuguese to Spanish and back again.

      People always forget languages are a living thing and words for a lot of things were very different hundreds of years ago.

      • Annoyed_🦀 @lemmy.zip
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        1 day ago

        In English it went from the Spanish cacarucha to the English cacarootch.

        Is this why goku/kakarot so hard to kill?