That Don't Make No Sense

[Gray Beard]

2 hours ago, Gugny said:

If clipboard is pronounced "clip board," why is cupboard pronounced, "cubbird?"

Also, clapboard is pronounced “clabbird”

[That's No Moon]

31 minutes ago, Gray Beard said:

Also, clapboard is pronounced “clabbird”

What about a forecastle and gunwale?

[Gray Beard]

1 hour ago, That's No Moon said:

What about a forecastle and gunwale?

And boatswain and coxswain 

[/dev/null]

3 hours ago, Nextmanup said:

You know how some menus at restaurants will have "buffalo wings" on them?

 

Well, someone please tell me where the wings are on a buffalo! 

 

That don't make no sense.

 

 

You know what else makes no sense?  Buffalo are found in Europe and Africa.  Bison are found in North and South America

 

Should they be called Bison Wings?

And shouldn't the city be Bison, New York

And the football team the Bison Bills

And the hockey team the Bison Sabres

And the baseball team would just sound silly Bison Bison

[DC Tom]

54 minutes ago, /dev/null said:

 

You know what else makes no sense?  Buffalo are found in Europe and Africa.  Bison are found in North and South America

 

Should they be called Bison Wings?

And shouldn't the city be Bison, New York

And the football team the Bison Bills

And the hockey team the Bison Sabres

And the baseball team would just sound silly Bison Bison

 

Fun fact: the European wood bison is also known by science wags as the "Higgs Bison."  For reasons known only to those that enjoy really bad puns.

[Gray Beard]

1 hour ago, /dev/null said:

 

You know what else makes no sense?  Buffalo are found in Europe and Africa.  Bison are found in North and South America

 

Should they be called Bison Wings?

And shouldn't the city be Bison, New York

And the football team the Bison Bills

And the hockey team the Bison Sabres

And the baseball team would just sound silly Bison Bison

It’s kind of like the Pennsylvania Dutch were actually German

[DC Tom]

6 hours ago, Gugny said:

If clipboard is pronounced "clip board," why is cupboard pronounced, "cubbird?"

 

Because the etymology of "clipboard" comes to us via old English "clyppe bred" - literally, a "fastener board.."   Cupboard, on the other hand, comes from the proto-Indo-European "kewp bherd."  A place of boarding (i.e. maintaining or storing) cups.

 

So they're obviously completely different. 

[Hedge]

“Would you like to donate to support {insert type} cancer?”

 

No, thanks. It does just fine on it’s own.

[DC Tom]

2 minutes ago, Gray Beard said:

It’s kind of like the Pennsylvania Dutch were actually German

 

It's nothing like that.  Bison and buffalo are completely different genera - of the family bovidae, bison are Bison bison (or the European Bison bosanus).  Buffalo, on the other hand, are of the genus Synercus (African cape buffalo - Synercus caffer) or Bubalus (Asian water buffalo - Bubalus arnee).

 

The Pennsylvania Dutch were actually the Pennsylvania Deutsche - the Pennsylvania Germans, literally.

 

So they're nothing alike.

[DC Tom]

4 hours ago, That's No Moon said:

What about a forecastle and gunwale?

 

What about them?

 

"Forecastle" comes from the early days of sail, when they would build up the fore and aft of the ship into high-walled strongpoints from which archers (or early cannon) could dominate nearby ships and which could be defended easily in case of boarding from the waste.  They were literally "castles" at the fore and aft of the ship - Henry VIII's Mary Rose being an excellent example of such:

 

And yes, "aftcastle" was a term at the time, too.  

 

"Gunwale" was simply a horizontal reinforcing beam used to stiffen a ship.  Nowadays it's a generic term for where the strength deck meets the side of a ship; a couple hundred years ago it was literally a beam - a wale - at the level of the gun deck, so literally a "gun wale."

[Gray Beard]

3 minutes ago, DC Tom said:

 

It's nothing like that.  Bison and buffalo are completely different genera - of the family bovidae, bison are Bison bison (or the European Bison bosanus).  Buffalo, on the other hand, are of the genus Synercus (African cape buffalo - Synercus caffer) or Bubalus (Asian water buffalo - Bubalus arnee).

 

The Pennsylvania Dutch were actually the Pennsylvania Deutsche - the Pennsylvania Germans, literally.

 

So they're nothing alike.

The connection I was making was the way a mispronounced term was adapted. 

 

Pennsylvania Deutsche became Pennsylvania Dutch

 

now here’s where I’m not really sure...  I believe that a French term for beautiful river is beau fleuve, which was mispronounced to become Buffalo. That may be an urban legend, I’m sure you know more than I do on the subject. 

2 minutes ago, DC Tom said:

 

What about them?

 

"Forecastle" comes from the early days of sail, when they would build up the fore and aft of the ship into high-walled strongpoints from which archers (or early cannon) could dominate nearby ships and which could be defended easily in case of boarding from the waste.  They were literally "castles" at the fore and aft of the ship - Henry VIII's Mary Rose being an excellent example of such:

 

And yes, "aftcastle" was a term at the time, too.  

 

"Gunwale" was simply a horizontal reinforcing beam used to stiffen a ship.  Nowadays it's a generic term for where the strength deck meets the side of a ship; a couple hundred years ago it was literally a beam - a wale - at the level of the gun deck, so literally a "gun wale."

I think the point he was trying to make is that they are pronounced with the middle parts of the words missing. 

[DC Tom]

1 minute ago, Gray Beard said:

The connection I was making was the way a mispronounced term was adapted. 

 

Pennsylvania Deutsche became Pennsylvania Dutch

 

now here’s where I’m not really sure...  I believe that a French term for beautiful river is beau fleuve, which was mispronounced to become Buffalo. That may be an urban legend, I’m sure you know more than I do on the subject. 

 

The first known reference "Buffalo" related to the northeastern shore of Lake Erie was in the mid-1600s, some Englishman referencing, in writing, "Buffalo Creek."  If that's derived from beau fleuve, it's the first, last, and only time anyone referred to Seneca Creek as "beautiful."  

 

It's probably as simple as the Englishman who named "Buffalo Creek" saw American Wood Bison drinking there (yes, WNY was historically in the American bison's range), and said "Look, buffalo drinking from a creek!  A buffalo creek!"  Because at the time there was no distinction between buffalo and bison or scientific naming of animals, being some 100 years before Linnaeus.

[Gray Beard]

2 minutes ago, DC Tom said:

 

The first known reference "Buffalo" related to the northeastern shore of Lake Erie was in the mid-1600s, some Englishman referencing, in writing, "Buffalo Creek."  If that's derived from beau fleuve, it's the first, last, and only time anyone referred to Seneca Creek as "beautiful."  

 

It's probably as simple as the Englishman who named "Buffalo Creek" saw American Wood Bison drinking there (yes, WNY was historically in the American bison's range), and said "Look, buffalo drinking from a creek!  A buffalo creek!"  Because at the time there was no distinction between buffalo and bison or scientific naming of animals, being some 100 years before Linnaeus.

Reminds me of the song  lyrics “home on the range where the deer and the antelope play.”

They aren’t antelope. Maybe elk?

[DC Tom]

1 minute ago, Gray Beard said:

Reminds me of the song  lyrics “home on the range where the deer and the antelope play.”

They aren’t antelope. Maybe elk?

 

They're American Antelope, named so when someone European saw them and said "Hey, look, antelope!"  Because they didn't know the pronghorn antelope was really a midget giraffe, and it looked like an Old World antelope, and Linnaeus hadn't been born yet...

[Gray Beard]

Just now, DC Tom said:

 

They're American Antelope, named so when someone European saw them and said "Hey, look, antelope!"  Because they didn't know the pronghorn antelope was really a midget giraffe, and it looked like an Old World antelope, and Linnaeus hadn't been born yet...

You win.

 

I'm an idiot. 

[DC Tom]

Just now, Gray Beard said:

You win.

 

I'm an idiot. 

 

You know, I once told someone that I could convince anyone of anything simply by saying it with the confidence of someone who knows everything, then within ten minutes had them convinced that the city with the largest Buddhist population outside of China was Krakow, Poland.  Not often I tell someone exactly how I'm going to lie to them, then lie to them and get them to believe me.  

 

Which is not to say anything above was a lie - those are the origins of "forecastle" and "gunwale," the American pronghorn antelope are most closely related to giraffes, that is probably why the American bison is called "buffalo" (and why the city got its name).  That's all true, or in the case of "buffalo," as likely to be true as any other explanation, given what we know.

 

All those being true is why I can, with the confidence of someone who knows everything, make up some bull#### about the etymological difference between "clipboard" and "cupboard," and make it sound good.  That was total nonsense.

[Cripple Creek]

12 minutes ago, DC Tom said:

 

You know, I once told someone that I could convince anyone of anything simply by saying it with the confidence of someone who knows everything, then within ten minutes had them convinced that the city with the largest Buddhist population outside of China was Krakow, Poland.  Not often I tell someone exactly how I'm going to lie to them, then lie to them and get them to believe me.  

 

Which is not to say anything above was a lie - those are the origins of "forecastle" and "gunwale," the American pronghorn antelope are most closely related to giraffes, that is probably why the American bison is called "buffalo" (and why the city got its name).  That's all true, or in the case of "buffalo," as likely to be true as any other explanation, given what we know.

 

All those being true is why I can, with the confidence of someone who knows everything, make up some bull#### about the etymological difference between "clipboard" and "cupboard," and make it sound good.  That was total nonsense.

If you're going to continue to ruin this thread then I will not post any more responses.

[DC Tom]

33 minutes ago, Cripple Creek said:

If you're going to continue to ruin this thread then I will not post any more responses.

 

You're welcome, everyone.

[SlimShady'sSpaceForce]

6 hours ago, Nextmanup said:

You know how some menus at restaurants will have "buffalo wings" on them?

 

Well, someone please tell me where the wings are on a buffalo! 

 

That don't make no sense.

 

Considering that is a Bison 

 

duh ? 

[DC Tom]

8 minutes ago, SlimShady'sGhost said:

Considering that is a Bison 

 

duh ? 

 

It's a tatonka.