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My favourite word in Greek

Cifi

My favourite word in Greek

Post by Cifi »

I'm a beginner, and I don't know much vocabulary yet, but yesterday I came across my first favourite word:

Καμηλοπάρδαλη for giraffe.

Do you have any which you would want to share?

Native: :de: Intermediate: :uk: Lower intermediate: :es: Beginner: :fr: Absolute beginner: 🇬🇷
(If there are errors in what I'm writing in either language, please do correct me - I'll never take it as offense or something like that.)

Cifi

Re: My favourite word in Greek

Post by Cifi »

Taking a look at giraffes at Wikipedia, I found out it is mirroring the botanical zoological? scientific? name, Giraffa camelopardalis, which I wasn't aware of. And it seems to mean something like "mottled camel" rather than "leopard camel" or "panther camel" as suggested in the sentence discussion (though the leopard's name, Panthera pardus, does have the same root). Still funny, but not so much related to Greek.

Native: :de: Intermediate: :uk: Lower intermediate: :es: Beginner: :fr: Absolute beginner: 🇬🇷
(If there are errors in what I'm writing in either language, please do correct me - I'll never take it as offense or something like that.)

Phil682961

Re: My favourite word in Greek

Post by Phil682961 »

Cifi wrote: Mon Jun 20, 2022 6:56 am

Taking a look at giraffes at Wikipedia, I found out it is mirroring the botanical zoological? scientific? name, Giraffa camelopardalis, which I wasn't aware of. And it seems to mean something like "mottled camel" rather than "leopard camel" or "panther camel" as suggested in the sentence discussion (though the leopard's name, Panthera pardus, does have the same root). Still funny, but not so much related to Greek.

It's interesting nevertheless!

"Camelopard" was apparently common in English until the 19th century: https://jakubmarian.com/origin-of-the-w ... d-giraffe/

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sotos_greece
Greece

Re: My favourite word in Greek

Post by sotos_greece »

Hi, i am new in DuoLingo (just a month).
I bumped into your question. if i may clarify your wondering loveable-question...
"καμηλοπάρδαλις" = camelopardalis = giraffe is a two-words name of an animal, combining the word "καμήλα=camel" and the word "=παρδάλις or the newer spoken modern greek word "παρδαλή" =pardalis " which means "multicolored with spots" aka... Λεοπάρδαλις=Leopard, Καμηλοπάρδαλις=Giraffe.
Meaning that the thing we describe has multi color SPOTS. Only with spots! not any other shape like stripes or whatever.
We use in modern greek the word "παρδαλός" (deriving from the "παρδάλις") to describe someone who dresses (in clothes) with vibrant and multicolored clothes also. We also use it in modern greek to say that someone has multi-ideas, multi-colored ... etc... "multi" in general. The NOT-conventional person. Something like the "eccentric".
i hope i helped you :)


(btw. i am NO teacher)

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