[2681] in tlhIngan-Hol
Re: The origin of the name Ferengi
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Fri Jan 21 00:59:53 1994
Reply-To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@klingon.East.Sun.COM>
From: nsn@vis.mu.OZ.AU (Nick NICHOLAS)
To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@klingon.East.Sun.COM>
Date: Fri, 21 Jan 94 14:07:25 EDT
In-Reply-To: <9401201805.A00805@dragonsys.COM>; from "mark" at Jan 20, 94 6:05
pm
batlh choja', mark quv:
=Last June the question was raised on the LINGUIST list of the origin of the
=Thai word "farang" 'Caucasian, Westerner'. The responses fill 6 pages of
=printout, and some of them do mention Star Trek.
=Very briefly, the word seems to have come from pre-French and moved through
=the Mediterranean and on to the south and east. Its meanings in dozens of
=languages from Greek to Vietnamese generally correspond to 'European', but
=also include 'Westerner', 'goods, stuff, things such as might be brought by
=traders' [Bahasa Indonesia], and 'aggressive Westerner' [Thai, as I read the
=comment]!
Oh, love a duck! THAT word! Why, I know that word all too well! In Greek,
it's Frangos [Fragkos]; in Turkish, Frenk. It comes, of course, from Frank,
as in Frankish/France, and it was in Crusade days (and still is in the Middle
East) the generic word for Westerner.
It's a word with a very long pedigree in Greek (and throughout the range
of languages mentioned; that's why it showed up in both Amharic and Hindi),
and has lots and lots of connotations --- usually negative. And it certainly
makes me look upon the Ferengi in a whole new light!
The Ferengi are Fragkoi! Well fancy that! And we'll have lots of names for
the Ferengi Home planet, in that case: the Greek for Western Europe (before
Greeks started believing they were Europeans themselves) was Frangya'
[Fragkia = Francia], and the Turkish was Frenkistan.
== == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == ==
Nick Nicholas, Breather {le'o ko na rivbi fi'inai palci je tolvri danlu}
nsn@krang.vis.mu.oz.au -- Miguel Cervantes tr. Jorge LLambias
