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Hello am business goose.(lemmy.world)

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BonesOfTheMoon@lemmy.world
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memes@lemmy.ml
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Green_Bay_Guy@midwest.social
31 points

You could do this all day with Vietnamese. Kangaroo is bag mouse. Orca is assassin fish, giraffe is a long-necked deer. Etc.

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enthusiasticamoeba@lemmy.ml
19 points
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Dutch has a lot of good ones!

Hippo: Nile Horse (nijlpaard)

Leopard: Lazy Horse (luipaard)

Sea urchin: Sea Hedgehog (zee egel)

Seal: Sea Dog (zeehond)

Skunk: Stink Animal (stinkdier)

Turtle: Shield Toad (Schildpad)

Slug: Naked Snail (Naaktslak)

Porcupine: Spiky Pig (Stekelvarken)

Edit: formatting

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lugal@sopuli.xyz
10 points

Leopard: Lazy Horse (luipaard)

I’ve looked it up and apparently leo is lion and part is leopard or panther. So it’s a lion leopard. English and Dutch have the same etymology, and German too, all your examples are the same in German.

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napalminjello@kbin.social
5 points

Are you implying that the word for leopard is compounded from the word for leopard??? How did they get the first word for leopard if they didn’t have a word for leopard???

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Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de
5 points

Hippopotamus comes from the Greek words hippos (horse) and potamos (river). So literally “river horse”.

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Pinklink@lemm.ee
5 points

While this is kind of fun, it’s also kind of frustrating. Like when Merriam Webster tries to define a word for me by using the word. Frustrating: having a quality or qualities that frustrates.

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redcalcium@lemmy.institute
4 points

So this is why Indonesian names for hippo, sea urchin and seal are weird af. They are actually direct translation from their dutch names!

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CurlyMoustache@lemmy.world
3 points
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Norwegian

Hedgehog: Needle Swine (pinnsvin/

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saltnotsugar@lemm.ee
8 points

Wow that’s a big bouncing animal! Kind of reminds me of-
“A mouse. Like a big mouse with a bag.”
…Good idea sir.

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WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world
2 points

Sylvester agrees.

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lugal@sopuli.xyz
4 points

German has Killerwahl (killer whale) for orca

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nudny ekscentryk@szmer.info
4 points

So does English, no?

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lugal@sopuli.xyz
1 point

I didn’t know. So the German might be a calque from the English

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HotDogFingies@kbin.social
4 points

That’s adorable

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DrQuint@lemm.ee
1 point
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Somewhere, out there, there’s a language that does NOT have any funny details like this. Those who speak it have the maximum enjoyment potential when learning out.

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