2393: whale Jul 8, 2021

The word 'whale' has its origins even in idioms and phrases of Old English, the concept used to be more generic. First off, the Old English could refer to a walrus, which is a compound once meaning 'whale-horse' in Dutch, or 'horschwæl' in Old English. This word was also part of many kennings like 'hron-rād' ('whale-road'). Likewise, this root historically just referred to any large sea-animal, such as the Latin 'squalus' denoting anything big in the sea. Indeed this idea carried on into modern phrases like 'whale of a time' which just means 'big; grand'.

2328: Fishing in Arabic (Maghrebi Dialect) May 3, 2021

Although in Arabic retains many similarities to Classical Arabic and and its dialects are usually fairly mutually intelligible, but there are of course certain regional differences. Past the larger phonetic and grammatical variations, as well as effects of various environmental factors, there are some amusing differences in vocabulary. For instance the word for 'to fish' in Arabic is صيد السمك (sayd alsamak) actually meaning 'to hunt fish', while in Maghrebi Arabic the word for fish is حوت (hawt). In Standard Arabic this would mean 'whale' and thus the Maghrebi for 'to fish' صيد الحوت (sayd alhut) or literally 'to hunt whale'.