• 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!