Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Ety Ety Ety

1. The first half of Y is adapted from ____ an old German shepherds' herding cry. That is, actual shepherds from Germany. Not the dogs.
Sounds pretty innocuous, right? Well, it was, up until around 1819, when the citizens of Germany and other neighboring countries began using it as their rallying cry while going Hebrew-hunting in the Jewish ghettos. Y is a phrase.

2. Originally, X was derived from the French word _______ ("of Bulgaria"), meaning the medieval Bulgarian clerical sect of the Bogomils, which facing severe persecution in Bulgaria spread into Western Europe and was branded by the established church as particularly devoted to the practice of sodomy.
The word is also used amongst friends in an affectionate way (you old X) and is used as a noun in Welsh English vernacular to imply that one is very fond of something (I'm a X for Welsh cakes). It can also imply a negative tendency (He's a silly X for losing his keys) [i.e He's a fool for losing his keys often].
A colloquial phrase in England (and often in New Zealand and Australia as well) to denote or feint surprise at an unexpected (or possibly unwanted) occurrence is "X me, here's my bus" or "Well, I'm Xed!". It can also be used to indicate a state of fatigue, such as "I'm Xed."

3. The word Z comes into English from Latin _______, from the ancient Greek word ______ . The word is onomatopoeic, the _______ representing the impression of random hubbub produced by hearing a spoken language that one cannot understand, similar to blah blah, babble or rhubarb in modern English.
Depending on its use, the term Z either described a foreign individual or tribe whose first language was not Greek or a Greek individual or tribe speaking Greek crudely.

7 comments:

Skythe said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Skythe said...

2) Bugger?

The Mudd said...

is correct

Shazz said...

3) barbarian?

The Mudd said...

is correct... only 1 left

Shazz said...

Tally ho?

Spartaaa?

up, up and away?

Ded said...

Hip Hip Hooray?