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Toast_in_the_Machine
Sep 24, 2011, 12:43 PM
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I found this gem:
http://dailyuw.com/...-the-week-carabiner/
In reply to: So, to review, we went from carabiner to carbine to escarrabin to scarabaeus, or from a climbing tool to a rifle to a gravedigger to a beetle known for growing up in its mother's dung. While that might possibly be too much information, aren't complex etymologies fun? |
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shockabuku
Sep 24, 2011, 4:09 PM
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Toast_in_the_Machine wrote: I found this gem: http://dailyuw.com/...-the-week-carabiner/ In reply to: So, to review, we went from carabiner to carbine to escarrabin to scarabaeus, or from a climbing tool to a rifle to a gravedigger to a beetle known for growing up in its mother's dung. While that might possibly be too much information, aren't complex etymologies fun?
From now on I will just call them "clippy things".
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gunkiemike
Sep 24, 2011, 5:54 PM
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Or the ever popular "snap link".
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potreroed
Sep 24, 2011, 7:22 PM
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Registered: Sep 30, 2001
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crabs
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robdotcalm
Sep 25, 2011, 3:40 AM
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The etymology of "carabiner" was discussed here some time ago http://www.rockclimbing.com/...20etymology;#1228587
In reply to: The etymology of “carabiner” is somewhat complex. It probably came into English from the Franco-German word “karabinerhaken”, meaning literally “karabiner hook”. These devices were used by militia (who used carbines rather than regular rifles) to hook their carbines to their bandoleers. Here “karabin” was the modification of the French “carabine”. The words carbine and carabineer have their own interesting derivations. They were derived from “escarrabin” referring to one who prepared corpses for burial during the plague years in Europe. This was derived from scarabée the French word for scarab which, in turn, came from the Latin scarabaeus (cf. Greek karabos) meaning a horned beetle. .
Gratias et valete bene!
RobertusPunctumPacificus
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styndall
Sep 25, 2011, 4:02 AM
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The interesting bit here is the variation in the Latin and Greek forms. The s in the Latin and the lack of s in the Greek indicates a fairly rare phenomenon within Indo-European languages called s-mobile, which also appears in the word for 'snow,' among a few others. I didn't know about the s-mobile in the word for dung-beetle, which makes this etymology much more interesting.
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JAB
Oct 2, 2011, 7:37 AM
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gunkiemike wrote: Or the ever popular "snap link".
not to forget "beaner"
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6pacfershur
Oct 3, 2011, 12:03 AM
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JAB wrote: gunkiemike wrote: Or the ever popular "snap link". not to forget "beaner"
i think you mean "biner"....
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Rmsyll2
Oct 4, 2011, 3:23 AM
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> not to forget "beaner"
>> i think you mean "biner"
He may have meant a 'biner [abbreviation of carabiner indicated by apostrophe] that was dropped and hit him on the head, from previous colloquial usage of bean for head, more frequently applied in baseball commentary. However, the quotation marks could have indicated actual pronunciation, leading to ignorant misspellings by those who have not read this wonderful original post, which I much appreciated before it was distracted.
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JAB
Oct 4, 2011, 12:04 PM
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Registered: Apr 26, 2007
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I'm ok, I'm wearing a helmet!
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