Dingo the Dissident

THE BLOG OF DISQUIET : Qweir Notions, an uncommonplace-book from the Armpit of Diogenes, binge-thinker jottings since 2008 .

Tuesday 1 November 2016

"Americanisms"

What the British think of as Americanisms
(and usually resent) are mostly importations
from French via Louisiana
(Have a nice day! is the most obvious and recent, but few know
that dime is from French disme);
from German (the loathsome hamburger
which was made of beef and came from Hamburg);
Swedish (rutabaga, layer-cake); Italian
(cilantro, arugula - Let's do lunch);
but not, so far as I know, from Irish...
...unless the term to dig something
is related to the Irish an dtuigeann tú ?
(do you get it, do you understand ?)
rather than (or as well as) from Wolof
degg, to comprehend ...

There is a vast catalog
of translated or transliterated linguistic borrowings in the USA:
I did not know until today
that Boondocks comes from Tagalog...

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