Post
Language can be really messy and confusing sometimes.
Today I learned that in English, a castrated, male lamb is called a wether, while a normal male lamb is called a ram. But in Danish it is opposite: Here a væder (pronounced like wether) is the normal, male lamb, while the castrated one is called a bede (pronounced “be-the”).
@randahl There's an area in southern New Zealand where the first European explorer to do any serious mapping gave a bunch of small rivers animal names based on his local dialect (the far north of England - so far north it was almost in Scotland). There's a Wether Burn, a Kye Burn and a Gimmer Burn and a few less obscure names. ("Burn" in this context being a small river).
Just to make life even more confusing, someone surveyed a town on the Wether Burn and called it "Wedderburn". The entire area is sometimes known as "Thomson's Barnyard".
The Ovine community salutes you 😀
@randahl Skal vi vædde på, at det er en vædder ??
@randahl to make it even messier, in Australia we use the term “two tooth wether” instead of saying “hogget” (I grew up on a sheep farm)
@randahl It was a long trip over the Nord Sea/Atlantic for the Vikings from Denmark, you can excuse them for switching some words around on the way over.
And in American, ram means ridiculously huge pickup truck with 47 l engine that uses 3 barrels of fuel per foot, and is probably related somehow to impotent males.
@randahl The term bellwether originally meant a castrated sheep with a bell that led the flock. It now also means a trendsetter that leads the public - in politics, fashion, business, etc. For example, a bellwether voting region might predict how a country will vote.
@randahl
Today I learned the meaning of that one word in "får og beder omkring ham sprang". 😱
At least I learned that it's not "Ole sad på en knallert sang" when I learned to read. 🤔
British cold taps marked C for cold
French hot taps marked C for 'chaud'
Install bonfire.cafe
Get the full app experience
