Re: Capitalized bird names

On Sun, 05 Aug 2007 01:25:53 -0700, Jitze <couperus@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Sun, 05 Aug 2007 00:43:17 -0400, tony cooper
<tony_cooper213@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:



However, I might enjoy reading that response if written by Mike Lyle
or Vinnie. I *know* I would enjoy reading that response if written by
Jitzie. He probably has had experience mistaking a male Mexican Duck
with a female Mallard. That guy's been around.


Well, well... This really is a coincidence that you should bring up
the subject of a Male duck. Yea verily, within the last 24 hours
I have been engaged in a discussion in another language forum anent
this very subject.

I was confronted with the Dutch word "draketanden" which was
unfamiliar to me. Given the propensity of the Dutch to concatenate
words, I was successfull in initialy parsing this into its two
constituent words, namely "drake" and "tanden". A drake is of
course a Male duck, and I know that "tanden" means teeth - so
at a first guess, the discussion appeared to be about male duck's
teeth.

Perhaps related to the English idiom involving "hen's teeth"?

Not a bit of it. It turns out that "drake" is a false friend here, and
in Dutch this word means "dragon" as opposed to "a male duck"
and is pronounced more like "draahk" than "drayke".

So wotinell is or are "dragons teeth"? Behold the following:

http://home.hetnet.nl/~julianadorp-info/jdorp-wo2/jd-39-45/1-draketand-hp-zt.jpg

or if it folds, the the tinyURL is

http://tinyurl.com/2olp3r

For those unfamilar with this archtectural feature, these are small
concrete pyramids, usually arrayed in the dunes behind a beach, and
designed to make life difficult for any invading tanks that might want
to pass this way.

Obaue - what is the English name for these thingies? (A tank-trap
presumably being something more along the lines of a moat or a ditch)
I considered this as a candidate question for [=SDC=] but figured
it might be too easy - even though I didn't know the answer.

One word that seems related is a caltrop, caltrap or calthrop (I've
just seen all three spellings on various sites.)
COD10 says:
caltrop (also caltrap)
· n.
1 a spiked metal ball thrown on the ground to impede wheeled vehicles
or (formerly) cavalry horses.

According to
http://www.entertheninja.com/ninja_fact/weapons.php
and "Shogun", these things were used by Ninja to lacerate the feet of
anyone chasing them. No matter how they fall, there's a pointed bit
always sticking up. A picture of them is the 20th one from the top on
that website.
--
Robin
Herts, England
.

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