Zompist Bboard Again

sasasha wrote: ↑Mon May 18, 2020 5:57 am

Ars Lande wrote: ↑Mon May 18, 2020 3:06 amGood one! You taught me a new word there. FWIW according to my dictionary the meaning is closer to the definition Ser gives.

Ah, fascinating. Thanks Ser.

I learnt that word on (what I think was essentially) this thread maybe 15 years ago.

Ser wrote: ↑Mon May 18, 2020 9:24 pm

sasasha wrote: ↑Mon May 18, 2020 5:57 am

Ars Lande wrote: ↑Mon May 18, 2020 3:06 amGood one! You taught me a new word there. FWIW according to my dictionary the meaning is closer to the definition Ser gives.

Ah, fascinating. Thanks Ser.

I learnt that word on (what I think was essentially) this thread maybe 15 years ago.

It sounds like that word is very uncommon in French though, since Ars Lande didn't know it. It was very common in El Salvador when I grew up, where I often got to hear it as a kid as the adults told us to stop playing outside in the evening ("get inside or you're going to get sick from the sereno!").

bradrn wrote: ↑Mon May 18, 2020 9:35 pm

Ser wrote: ↑Mon May 18, 2020 9:24 pm

sasasha wrote: ↑Mon May 18, 2020 5:57 am Ah, fascinating. Thanks Ser.

I learnt that word on (what I think was essentially) this thread maybe 15 years ago.

It sounds like that word is very uncommon in French though, since Ars Lande didn't know it. It was very common in El Salvador when I grew up, where I often got to hear it as a kid as the adults told us to stop playing outside in the evening ("get inside or you're going to get sick from the sereno!").

I don’t know anything of either French or Spanish, but I’d be interested if you know: do you have any idea how common that word is in Spain as opposed to El Salvador? It would be interesting to know if sereno is today a Latin American-specfic term, but it would be just as interesting to know if it’s common in Spain but not France.

Now that you mention it, I’ve always thought English has a rather large set of short words for specific weather-related concepts: rain, snow, sleet, hail, storm, fog, smog, dew, frost etc. None of these concepts are particularly complex in and of themselves, but taken together, each one is surprisingly specific. Everyone knows the old Eskimos have twenty words for snow saying, but it’s more true of English words for rain!

sasasha wrote: ↑Tue May 19, 2020 5:34 am

bradrn wrote: ↑Mon May 18, 2020 9:35 pm

Ser wrote: ↑Mon May 18, 2020 9:24 pm
It sounds like that word is very uncommon in French though, since Ars Lande didn't know it. It was very common in El Salvador when I grew up, where I often got to hear it as a kid as the adults told us to stop playing outside in the evening ("get inside or you're going to get sick from the sereno!").

I don’t know anything of either French or Spanish, but I’d be interested if you know: do you have any idea how common that word is in Spain as opposed to El Salvador? It would be interesting to know if sereno is today a Latin American-specfic term, but it would be just as interesting to know if it’s common in Spain but not France.

Now that you mention it, I’ve always thought English has a rather large set of short words for specific weather-related concepts: rain, snow, sleet, hail, storm, fog, smog, dew, frost etc. None of these concepts are particularly complex in and of themselves, but taken together, each one is surprisingly specific. Everyone knows the old Eskimos have twenty words for snow saying, but it’s more true of English words for rain!

Also shower, squall and mist.

And don't forget the verb-only ones: spitting, pouring, chucking/pissing it down, lashing/bucketing down... apparently my partner says he might say "it's dribbling", when looking out the window.

bradrn wrote: ↑Tue May 19, 2020 6:14 am

sasasha wrote: ↑Tue May 19, 2020 5:34 am

bradrn wrote: ↑Mon May 18, 2020 9:35 pm

I don’t know anything of either French or Spanish, but I’d be interested if you know: do you have any idea how common that word is in Spain as opposed to El Salvador? It would be interesting to know if sereno is today a Latin American-specfic term, but it would be just as interesting to know if it’s common in Spain but not France.

Now that you mention it, I’ve always thought English has a rather large set of short words for specific weather-related concepts: rain, snow, sleet, hail, storm, fog, smog, dew, frost etc. None of these concepts are particularly complex in and of themselves, but taken together, each one is surprisingly specific. Everyone knows the old Eskimos have twenty words for snow saying, but it’s more true of English words for rain!

Also shower, squall and mist.

True, I forgot those ones. But they’re a bit more obscure.

(Oh, and I just remembered another one: drizzle.)

And don't forget the verb-only ones: spitting, pouring, chucking/pissing it down, lashing/bucketing down... apparently my partner says he might say "it's dribbling", when looking out the window.

Aren’t those more metaphorical extensions of pre-existing words rather than dedicated words?

bradrn wrote: ↑Mon May 18, 2020 9:35 pm

Ser wrote: ↑Mon May 18, 2020 9:24 pm

sasasha wrote: ↑Mon May 18, 2020 5:57 am Ah, fascinating. Thanks Ser.

I learnt that word on (what I think was essentially) this thread maybe 15 years ago.

It sounds like that word is very uncommon in French though, since Ars Lande didn't know it. It was very common in El Salvador when I grew up, where I often got to hear it as a kid as the adults told us to stop playing outside in the evening ("get inside or you're going to get sick from the sereno!").

I don’t know anything of either French or Spanish, but I’d be interested if you know: do you have any idea how common that word is in Spain as opposed to El Salvador? It would be interesting to know if sereno is today a Latin American-specfic term, but it would be just as interesting to know if it’s common in Spain but not France.

Ser wrote: ↑Tue May 19, 2020 4:19 pmI have no idea. So I just asked three people from Spain I sometimes talk to, and they told me they had never heard this use of the word.

Linguoboy wrote: ↑Tue May 19, 2020 3:42 pmOne exception might be uaineadh (only three phonemes in my pronunciation) which specifically refers to the interval between bouts of rain. (It's a derivation of uain which can translate "interval, opportune time" and host of other meanings.)

bradrn wrote: ↑Sun Aug 08, 2021 1:51 am From Nivkh: a ‘sazhen [= unit of length, equivalent to 2.13 metres]’ (Gruzdeva 1998), e ‘comb’ (Shiraishi 2006).