A Common Language

The last few evenings have been spent changing the random blog description. I’d previously had a number of famous quotes that would randomly appear every time the front page was accessed, but couldn’t find enough of them. There is, however, an endless stream of difficult, strange and obscure words from the English language, and the hope is I shall learn a few of them this way.

As I looked for said words, I came across a couple that were similar in pronunciation and meaning in Swedish, which reminded me of others I have learnt through my etymological meanderings. For my own interest, these are:

yenta: someone, normally a woman, who spreads rumours – jänta: (girl)
gravid: carrying developing young or eggs – gravid: pregnant
avgas: aviation gasoline – avgas: exhaust fumes
screeve: write – skriv: write
claque: a group of persons hired to applaud at a performance – klack: in football etc supporters

All of thes above words are more commonly heard in the Swedish language than English, and most come from other languages themselves, so It’s perhaps not so surprising that they exist. But still, eh?