this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2023
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Memes

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[–] Green_Bay_Guy@midwest.social 31 points 2 years ago (17 children)

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 19 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (9 children)

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 10 points 2 years ago (4 children)

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.

[–] napalminjello@kbin.social 5 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Are you implying that the word for leopard is compounded from the word for leopard???? How did they get the first word for leopard if they didn't have a word for leopard?????

[–] lugal@sopuli.xyz 4 points 2 years ago

Correction: it's male leopard. It surprised me as well. It's ultimately from Indo-Iranian origin.

https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/pardus#Latin

[–] Haus@kbin.social 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

The Dutch are sneaky bastards (stiekemeklootzakken).

[–] WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

There are only two things I can't stand in this world: People who are intolerant of other people's cultures, and the Dutch.

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