• Green_Bay_Guy@midwest.social
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    9 months ago

    You could do this all day with Vietnamese. Kangaroo is bag mouse. Orca is assassin fish, giraffe is a long-necked deer. Etc.

    • enthusiasticamoeba@lemmy.ml
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      9 months ago

      Dutch has a lot of good ones!

      Hippo: Nile Horse (nijlpaard)

      Leopard: Lazy Horse (luipaard)

      Sea urchin: Sea Hedgehog (zee egel)

      Seal: Sea Dog (zeehond)

      Skunk: Stink Animal (stinkdier)

      Turtle: Shield Toad (Schildpad)

      Slug: Naked Snail (Naaktslak)

      Porcupine: Spiky Pig (Stekelvarken)

      Edit: formatting

      • lugal@sopuli.xyz
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        9 months ago

        Leopard: Lazy Horse (luipaard)

        I’ve looked it up and apparently leo is lion and part is leopard or panther. So it’s a lion leopard. English and Dutch have the same etymology, and German too, all your examples are the same in German.

      • Pinklink@lemm.ee
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        9 months ago

        While this is kind of fun, it’s also kind of frustrating. Like when Merriam Webster tries to define a word for me by using the word. Frustrating: having a quality or qualities that frustrates.

      • Karyoplasma
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        9 months ago

        Hippopotamus comes from the Greek words hippos (horse) and potamos (river). So literally “river horse”.

      • redcalcium@lemmy.institute
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        9 months ago

        So this is why Indonesian names for hippo, sea urchin and seal are weird af. They are actually direct translation from their dutch names!

    • saltnotsugar@lemm.ee
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      9 months ago

      Wow that’s a big bouncing animal! Kind of reminds me of-
      “A mouse. Like a big mouse with a bag.”
      …Good idea sir.

    • DrQuint@lemm.ee
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      9 months ago

      Somewhere, out there, there’s a language that does NOT have any funny details like this. Those who speak it have the maximum enjoyment potential when learning out.