Meow
I am making an attempt at studying German: I'm hindered by not having anyone to speak it with and also by being extremely intermittent in my studies. Today I was reading my German grammar textbook and came across this pair of sentences:
Silvester ist am einunddreissigsten Dezember.
New Year's Eve is on December 31st.
And I thought, "I...dude...wait...what? Silvester? Really?"
Really. Let's have a quick look at that, shall we?
The African wildcat, probably the progenitor of the common house cat, has as its Latin name felis silvestris lybica, a fine mouthful of words. The "silvestris" part is from Latin "silva", which means "forest" and has given English such words as "sylvan", which is an adjective meaning "wooded" or "forested" and has a decided connotation of peace and beauty, and also the name "Sylvester", which, you will have guessed already, is where the cartoon cat got his name. The various branches of felis silvestris, of which there are a few, live in forests (among other places--they have a very broad habitat), hence their name. The "felis" part comes from "felinus", which is the Latin word for "cat", obviously. The "lybica" part is from Libya, which is one of the places the African wildcat lives.
Sylvester used to be a fairly common boys' name. It isn't so much any more, because of the indelible association with that cartoon cat, but there was a Pope Sylvester (I guess anybody brought up Catholic, which I wasn't, would know that already), and the Germans took their name for New Year's Eve from him. It's kind of a long story, and I could boil it down for you, but wouldn't you rather read this? It's got recipes and everything!
Silvester ist am einunddreissigsten Dezember.
New Year's Eve is on December 31st.
And I thought, "I...dude...wait...what? Silvester? Really?"
Really. Let's have a quick look at that, shall we?
The African wildcat, probably the progenitor of the common house cat, has as its Latin name felis silvestris lybica, a fine mouthful of words. The "silvestris" part is from Latin "silva", which means "forest" and has given English such words as "sylvan", which is an adjective meaning "wooded" or "forested" and has a decided connotation of peace and beauty, and also the name "Sylvester", which, you will have guessed already, is where the cartoon cat got his name. The various branches of felis silvestris, of which there are a few, live in forests (among other places--they have a very broad habitat), hence their name. The "felis" part comes from "felinus", which is the Latin word for "cat", obviously. The "lybica" part is from Libya, which is one of the places the African wildcat lives.
Sylvester used to be a fairly common boys' name. It isn't so much any more, because of the indelible association with that cartoon cat, but there was a Pope Sylvester (I guess anybody brought up Catholic, which I wasn't, would know that already), and the Germans took their name for New Year's Eve from him. It's kind of a long story, and I could boil it down for you, but wouldn't you rather read this? It's got recipes and everything!
posted by pyramus | 10:44 PM
1 Comments:
I thought your manager spoke German? After all, she DID live in Germany for a while.
*boggle*
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