"Interesting Word Origins" thread

[Till]

German "Karacho" (speed, velocity) stems from spanish "carajo" (dick).


I wonder if Juan Manuel Fangio had some influence to form that word ;-)

[ewmayer]

Originally Posted by kruoli

That's interesting! In German, we have for that "Vetternwirtschaft". "Vetter" means cousin in a more rural language. "Wirtschaft" means economy. Normally, we would use "Cousin" and "Cousine" for a male/female cousin.

"Vetternwirtschaft" is the exact analog of the Latinate 'nepotism':

ORIGIN mid 17th cent.: from French népotisme, from Italian nepotismo, from nipote ‘nephew’ (with reference to privileges bestowed on the “nephews” of popes, who were in many cases their illegitimate sons).

[kruoli]

Then my explanation was wrong. It comes close to a literal analog, but the very minor difference is the "Verwandschaftsverhältnis" (genetic relationship). A nephew is someone's son's or daughter's child, maybe even the child of someone's brother or sister in law. In German, that's a "Neffe". A "Vetter" is the child of one of your parents brothers/sisters.

[ewmayer]

My bad - I am fully aware that German Vetter = male cousin, so 'close analog' is better. Note the Latin nepos can mean either nephew or grandson, and of course 'cousin' is a broad term encompassing all manner of more-distant-than-sibling relationships, so I claim "euphemistic equivalence" in that broader sense. :)

[kruoli]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

I claim "euphemistic equivalence" in that broader sense. :)

Full agreement!

[Uncwilly]

One thing about word origins: be very skeptical of anyone that claims any word is an acronym if the origin is supposed to be before WW II.

Yesterday I overheard someone claiming "wop" (a term that has come to be a derogatory term for an Italian American) stood for "With Out Papers" (an undocumented immigrant). It turns out that it in fact comes from guappo (meaning handsome, a dandy).

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by Uncwilly

One thing about word origins: be very skeptical of anyone that claims any word is an acronym if the origin is supposed to be before WW II.

Yesterday I overheard someone claiming "wop" (a term that has come to be a derogatory term for an Italian American) stood for "With Out Papers" (an undocumented immigrant). It turns out that it in fact comes from guappo (meaning handsome, a dandy).

One pair of my great-grandparents immigrated to the United States from Italy, and became US citizens. My Great-aunt Helen, daughter of those Italian great-grandparents, was born in the US under US jurisdiction, so was a US citizen. But she married a man who had also immigrated from Italy, and, because he was not a US citizen at the time of their marriage, lost her US citizenship! She regained her US citizenship IIRC when her husband became a US citizen.

I heard the "with out papers" folk etymology of "Wop," which these relatives had sometimes been called, and found it unconvincing. The "guappo" etymology sounds better. It is likely that for some time they were also not allowed to let a day go by without hearing some other pejorative term for someone of Italian ethnicity, which I can't seem to recall, since none of them were named Diego.