[lit-ideas] Re: Russian?
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 2 Jan 2014 20:12:47 -0500 (EST)
Ia message dated 1/2/2014 7:58:57 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
juliereneb@xxxxxxxxx writes:
cups and glasses, but in Russian, the difference between chashka (cup) and
stakan (glass) is based on shape, not material.>>I wonder if she meant to
say the opposite? To me, in English, the difference between "cup" and
"glass" usually is the shape. Is that different in Russian?
Mmmm
I wonder.
But then I would think that:
That glass is made of glass.
is what philosophers (or Witters at any rate) would call a tautology, i.e.
an item that does not "speak" about the world.
Revising the etymologies may help, though -- or then, confuse one further!
:) -- below.
Cheers,
Speranza
---
cup:
from online source: Etymology Online:
Old English cuppe, from Late Latin cuppa "cup" (source of Italian coppa,
Spanish copa, Old French coupe "cup"), from Latin cupa "tub, cask, tun,
barrel," from PIE *keup- "a hollow" (cf. Sanskrit kupah "hollow, pit, cave,"
Greek kype "a kind of ship," Old Church Slavonic kupu, Lithuanian kaupas).
The Late Latin word was borrowed throughout Germanic; cf. Old Frisian kopp
"cup, head," Middle Low German kopp "cup," Middle Dutch coppe, Dutch kopje
"cup, head." German cognate Kopf now means exclusively "head" (cf. French
tête, from Latin testa "potsherd"). Meaning "part of a bra that holds a
breast" is from 1938. [One's] cup of tea "what interests one" (1932), earlier
used of persons (1908), the sense being "what is invigorating."
glass:
Old English glæs "glass, a glass vessel," from West Germanic *glasam (cf.
Old Saxon glas, Middle Dutch and Dutch glas, German Glas, Old Norse gler
"glass, looking glass," Danish glar), from PIE *ghel- "to shine, glitter" (cf.
Latin glaber "smooth, bald," Old Church Slavonic gladuku, Lithuanian
glodus "smooth"), with derivatives referring to colors and bright materials, a
word that is the root of widespread words for gray, blue, green, and yellow
(cf. Old English glær "amber," Latin glaesum "amber," Old Irish glass
"green, blue, gray," Welsh glas "blue;" see Chloe). Sense of "drinking glass"
is
early 13c.
The glass slipper in "Cinderella" is perhaps an error by Charles
Perrault, translating in 1697, mistaking Old French voir "ermine, fur" for
verre
"glass." In other versions of the tale it is a fur slipper. The proverb about
people in glass houses throwing stones is attested by 1779, but earlier
forms go back to 17c.:
Who hath glass-windows of his own must take heed how he throws stones at
his house. ... He that hath a body made of glass must not throw stones at
another. [John Ray, "Handbook of Proverbs," 1670]
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