Random Daily Banter

[briantrumpet]

When was it that water was renamed aqua? I must have missed that.

I think you've got that back to front.

 

[First Aspect]

I think you've got that back to front.

Well it was called aqua in another language, which some well armed Italians brought with them. But not English or ye olde English, as far as I can tell. The only usage seems to be as a prefix or part of a compound word or phrase for particular types of aqueous composition.

I personally think it is being used by predominantly cosmetics companies as part of their relentless pseudoscientific marketing.

If it were me I'd use hudor or vatn.

 

[briantrumpet]

Well it was called aqua in another language, which some well armed Italians brought with them. But not English or ye olde English, as far as I can tell. The only usage seems to be as a prefix or part of a compound word or phrase for particular types of aqueous composition.

I personally think it is being used by predominantly cosmetics companies as part of their relentless pseudoscientific marketing.

If it were me I'd use hudor or vatn.

I'll scuttle off to the OED when I've finished my aerobics session.

But correct re cosmetics.

 

[First Aspect]

I'll scuttle off to the OED when I've finished my aerobics session.

But correct re cosmetics.

 

[briantrumpet]

View attachment 16822

Well I am at Les Liotards, doing my aerobic weights. Didn't think you could resist though.

You kinda win, BTW, though I suspect in international terms both words were contemporary in their own spheres, though 'aqua' did enter into Englingo much later. I love the length of the etymological explanation.

Cognate with Old Frisian weter (West Frisian wetter), Old Dutch watar (Middle Dutch, Dutch water), Old Saxon watar (Middle Low German water), Old High German wazzar (Middle High German wazzer, German Wasser), Old Icelandic (poetic and rare) vatr, all with a similar semantic range to the English word, and also (with different stem-final consonant: see note) Old Icelandic vatn, Old Swedish vatn (Swedish vatten), Old Danish wadn, wand (Danish vand), Gothic watin-, watō


< the same Indo-European base as Hittite u̯iten-, u̯ātar, Lithuanian vanduo, and probably Old Church Slavonic voda, and also with different ablaut (zero-grade) Sanskrit udan, ancient Greek ὕδατ-, ὕδωρ, Umbrian un-, utur, classical Latin unda (chiefly in sense ‘wave’; compare und n.), Old Prussian unds, wundan, Latvian ūdens, and (with further suffix) Early Irish uisce (compare usquebaugh n.).

Notes​

Indo-European connections
The Indo-European base is one of a small class of heteroclitic neuter r/n-stem nouns which apparently originally had stem-final ‑r in the nominative and accusative singular and ‑n in other cases (compare fire n.). This distribution survives in Hittite, Umbrian and Greek (where α in the oblique stem reflects Indo-European vocalic n̥). In the Germanic languages the forms were completely remodelled. In Gothic the word was partly assimilated to the n-stem declension. In West Germanic the r of the nominative and accusative was levelled throughout the paradigm, whereas in North Germanic the n of the oblique stem was levelled (although contrast rare Old Icelandic vatr). In both West Germanic and North Germanic the word was assimilated to the a-stem declension.
Compare also the widespread derivatives of the same Indo-European base with the sense ‘water-animal’, which preserve a stem-final ‑r: see otter n.1
Compare wet adj., which reflects the e-grade of the same Indo-European base.
Inflection in Old English
In Old English usually a strong neuter; inflection as a strong masculine or strong feminine is very occasionally attested, and also an apparently isolated weak genitive plural form wæterena.
Notes on senses
Frequently used to translate Anglo-Norman and Middle French, French eau (see ewer n.1) and its etymon post-classical Latin aqua (see aqua n.1) as well as ancient Greek ὕδωρ (see main etymology), all of which have a similar semantic range.
With plural uses with reference to mineral springs (see sense I.i.5a) compare classical Latin aquae (plural). Earlier currency in this sense is perhaps shown by the following example (however, it is impossible to say with certainty whether hat wæteris plural or singular as in Old English the forms would potentially be identical):

1. OE
   

   Hit hafað eac þis land sealtseaþas; & hit hafaþ hat wæter [Latin fontes calidos], & hat baðo ælcere yldo & hade ðurh todælede stowe gescræpe.

   translation of Bede, Ecclesiastical History (MS Cambr. University Libr.) i. Introduction 26

With plural uses to describe a mass of water collectively (see sense II.10) compare classical Latin aquae and ancient Greek ὕδατα; similar plural uses are also attested in other modern languages, e.g. German and French.
Uses of words for ‘water’ with reference to distillates, especially alcoholic liquor (see sense IV.22) are widespread in European languages; compare e.g. water of life n. 2 and the foreign-language parallels cited at that entry; compare also aquavit n. and vodka n. With burning water at sense IV.26 compare post-classical Latin aqua ardens (13th cent. in a British source), Middle French, French eau ardente (see ewe ardaunt n. and compare aguardiente n.).
With Water of Aquarius at sense V.27 compare post-classical Latin aqua Aquarii (1543 or earlier); compare also classical Latin Aqua and ancient Greek Ὕδωρ, denoting the same part of the constellation.

 

[First Aspect]

Well I am at Les Liotards, doing my aerobic weights. Didn't think you could resist though.

You kinda win, BTW, though I suspect in international terms both words were contemporary in their own spheres, though 'aqua' did enter into Englingo much later. I love the length of the etymological explanation.


View attachment 16823

View attachment 16824

It had to happen eventually.

 

[briantrumpet]

One for @First Aspect: the green carrot water experiment. (For the NCAP team, my orange carrot water turned green overnight, and FA mulled the reasons, being a clever person.) Sadly I've not been able to reproduce it since.

Well, I think I might have an offshoot: I think some water I microwaved/steamed potatoes in their skins turned green as it cooled, but stupidly I thought nothing of it, and checked the water away. I'm trying to make amends by reproducing the conditions this evening while I cook mty supper. (I know, you can hardly wait.)

Here's the hot post-cooking water:

I'll wait for it to cool down, and will see if it does turn green. Do spuds have carotene in them – instinct says no, but of course spuds turn green if you keep them around too long.

Gosh, the fun we had on Cake Stop!

 

[briantrumpet]

Well, it's definitely changed colour as it's cooled, but I'm not sure if it's really green.

 

[briantrumpet]

Haha. Love this.

 

[briantrumpet]

Quiz of the day:

What item on Amazon have I clipped this description from? (No cheating!)

 

[Ian H]

Quiz of the day:

What item on Amazon have I clipped this description from? (No cheating!)

View attachment 16920

A blow-up doll for your favourite sticky-palmed teenage nephew?

 

[Rusty Nails]

A blow-up doll for your favourite sticky-palmed teenage nephew?

If you get this right we'll all know why

 

[briantrumpet]

A blow-up doll for your favourite sticky-palmed teenage nephew?

No, that would make him go blind.

 

[Ian H]

No, that would make him go blind.

A friend and fellow cyclist advised me, with reference to her teenage nephew: never shake hands with a teenage boy who doesn't have a girlfriend.

 

[briantrumpet]

A clue that the brand name has maybe only a tangential apocryphal link to the product.

This might be my second clue, in fact.