Recently a friend asked me what an insect day was at school.
I laughed and explained that its not insect day but inset day. An inset day is a day of teacher training.
It reminded me of the time I found out that the scooter brand Vespa meant Wasp in Italian. It all made sense, the scooter sounds like a wasp!
Only today I read that that other giant of Sixties pop culture, Formica, the plastic table tops gracing chic homes in the kitsch decade was actually named after the ant in Italian. We were eating off ants and driving round on wasps! ha ha
Looking up foreign words as household items took me to the concept of Foreign Branding, which Wikipedia conveniently explains in full here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_branding
Swarfega is another strange word. Its a brand name for a smelly green cleaning gel. The brand name comes from a combination of swarf - industrial grime and grease - and eager as in eager to remove said grease and grime!
Swarfega always reminds me of Fugazi, not a brand name but an Italian slang word for a fake used by the US Army I think. However checking this online there seems to be some confusion with Fubar meaning F**ked up Beyond All Recognition. Where a Fugazi becomes a Fubar I'm now unsure.
Of all the US Army slang it must be SNAFU that has exported the best. Meaning Situation Normal All F**ked Up, its a sentiment we can all relate to and is much more interesting than polite english phrases like Organised Chaos.
To finish I'll mention that behemoth of mysterious meanings, a monolith among cryptologists and Star Wars fans the world over, Darth Vader.
Reading the teachings of learned Sith and informed Jedi it would appear that Vader is universally interpreted as father from the Dutch word Vader and a known surname in the Netherlands.
The word Darth is less clear. The popular meaning is dark giving us Dark Father, reflecting the prefered fashion tone of the Sith Lord and his infamous relationship to Luke and Leia.
My own preference is to relate it to the english word Dearth, which means a shortage, absence or shortfall of something such as a dearth of decent formica tables. This chimes with the less-popular notion that Darth Vader means Absent Father referring to the big fella's absence from Luke and Leia's lives as they felt the force without him.
Well, that's it. My Swarfega's snafu'd with fugazi's and I'm off to ponder the meaning of Cillit Bang. Your thoughts on this and any other words welcomed!
Teacher training days were known as Baker days back in the day (after Education Secretary Kenneth Baker). And Marathon chocolate bars should never have been renamed Snickers. What the heck is a Snicker? :)
ReplyDeleteNope, Baker Days is a new one on me Yorkie. Marathon was a great name I agree. Snickers I suppose is universally pronounceable. It rhymes with more stuff than Marathon! ha ha. I wanna know what happened to Aztecs and Amaizin Raisin bars!
DeleteAt least Yorkies are still Yorkies, ray! I always thought that the vader part was a contraction of 'invader' , so Dark Invader. This would coincide with Darth Sidious - from insidious, as Palpatine had wormed his way imto the structure of the Senate. Darth Maul incidentally means Dark Hammer.
ReplyDeleteHa ha, good ol' Yorkie! What a big bar of manly choc! As for your treatise on the use of the Sith prefix, it is clearly a matter of life and darth! Don't forget Darth Gag or dark humour, Darth Stuff or dark matter or the Sith Sommelier, Darthas Vineyard.
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