Pedants' Paradise

[vinteuil]

.....and k.d. lang.

... yes indeedy!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K.d._lang

[jean]

...and those with names beginning in ff, like ffrench or ffoulkes, although they're probably only surnames. (Not Ffion, though.)

[ahinton]

...and those with names beginning in ff, like ffrench or ffoulkes, although they're probably only surnames. (Not Ffion, though.)

Now be careful what you say about "ff""...

[Padraig]

Now be careful what you say about "ff""...

...and of course be nice to f f.

[Zucchini]

We've already had "Harry S Trueman" ...

Fiery Fred's dad, brother or son?

[Serial_Apologist]

I seem to remember quite a few Debbies around when I were a lad (b.1945) - Debbie, or Debs - short for Deborah.

Trudy - I always thought it was short for Gertrude?

[vinteuil]

I seem to remember quite a few Debbies around when I were a lad (b.1945) - Debbie, or Debs - short for Deborah.

Trudy - I always thought it was short for Gertrude?

... or Hortrude - or Trudeliese

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trudeliese_Schmidt

[vinteuil]

...and those with names beginning in ff, like ffrench or ffoulkes, although they're probably only surnames. (Not Ffion, though.)

... the Welsh double FF - as in Ffion - is of course a distinct 'letter' in that alphabet.

My understanding was that the ff in English surnames - ffrench, ffoulkes, ffoliot - is just a misunderstanding of early calligraphy - the 'capital F' having been represented by a swirly combination that looked like two f's conjoined. It is seen as 'upper class' because it is a relic of an early (Norman?) period - and the only people who wd have had their names written down then wd've been the nobs - so it is a sign of recorded ancient pedigree...

[gurnemanz]

... and thus ultimately from Gothic - tainjo

from

*tainijo, wicker (basket)

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/tainij%C7%AD

... proto-Germanic *tainaz twig

pre-Germanic *doynos


.

Just caught up a bit late on zaino. The word Zaine is still in use in Switzerland as a garden-basket.

In Italian must have started out as a specialised back carrier for mushroom pickers which actually included a basket in it to protect the funghi from damage in transit and eventually come to mean any backpack.

[ahinton]

...and of course be nice to f f.

Indeed.

[jean]

JIn Italian must have started out as a specialised back carrier for mushroom pickers which actually included a basket in it to protect the funghi from damage in transit and eventually come to mean any backpack.

All much more complicated than I imagined.

In spite of living in one the prime funghi porcini-producing areas of Italy, I never saw one of those!

(I wonder why they're called porcini...)

[vinteuil]

All much more complicated than I imagined.

In spite of living in one the prime funghi porcini-producing areas of Italy, I never saw one of those!

(I wonder why they're called porcini...)

... wiki is distressingly vague :

" The standard Italian name, porcino (pl. porcini), means porcine; fungo porcino, in Italian, echoes the term suilli, literally "hog mushrooms," a term used by the Ancient Romans and still in use in southern Italian terms for this species. The derivation has been ascribed to the resemblance of young fruit bodies to piglets, or to the fondness pigs have for eating them... "

[jean]

"...The derivation has been ascribed to the resemblance of young fruit bodies to piglets..."

You made that up, didn't you?

[vinteuil]

You made that up, didn't you?

... no, I lack the imagination

Italian wiki tells us -

"Gli antichi Romani chiamavano questi funghi Suillus per il loro aspetto generalmente tozzo e massiccio, ed il termine porcino ne è l'esatta traduzione"

All sounds a bit folk-etymology to me. Perhaps the meaty taste might have been a contributory factor...

In any case, funghi porcini are the boletus, and Martial for one made a distinction between the boletus and mushrooms fit for swine -

sunt tibi boleti; fungos ego sumo suillos [Ep. iii. 60]

All most confusing....



.

[Lat-Literal]

Fiery Fred's dad, brother or son?

Frederick Sewards Trueman?

I seem to remember quite a few Debbies around when I were a lad (b.1945) - Debbie, or Debs - short for Deborah.

Trudy - I always thought it was short for Gertrude?

Oh yes, S_A. Maybe not Ermintrude then. I named our first family car - a 1963 Skoda - Ermintrude because I liked the cow on the Magic Roundabout. When we drove it to Wales, a woman in a B and B in Pembrokeshire claimed to be upset because her middle name was Ermintrude. She didn't appear to be joking - in no way was she a Trudi - but I have never met anyone unequivocally of that name. I think mainly she was annoyed because my father accidentally broke her umbrella during a very poor re-enactment of Singing in the Rain.

On "Pointless" yesterday, a couple said that the middle name of one their children was "Danger". This was applauded on the grounds that it was a literal acceptance of the phrase "Danger is my middle name". My immediate thought was that I am more familiar with the phrase "Trouble is my Middle Name" but some quick research suggests that "Danger" is more common and with older roots. I like the reference in the first link to "advertising-and-christmas-stunts is my middle name" from 1914. Early commercialism, if very clunky!

https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-origin-of-the-sentence-Danger-is-my-middle-name

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trouble_Is_My_Middle_Name