Re: Word connections - malaise and sit

Daniel44 wrote:

> 'Mal' obviously means 'bad' but what about the ending '-aise'?
>
> My guess is that it comes from the verb s'asseyer (I hope the spelling is
> ok) which means 'to sit'.
<giggle> -aise is actually a separate word, meaning "comfort", from the
Latin adiacens, "lying next to", nothing to do with s'asseoir, at all (I
thought you had misspelt "essayer" to begin with).

> So 'malaise' could be translated as 'bad sitting'. In English we have such
> an expression: 'this just doesn't sit well for me'.
I would say that it's transparently "discomfort".

> And this brings us onto the English word 'sit'. Is it just a coincidence
> that the colloquial word 'to shit' is almost identical? After all, you
have
> to sit down in order to ... you get the idea.
Well, sometimes defacating is uncomfortable, a feeling of malaise?

ObConlang: The Rhendrin word for toilet, "agalen" comes from the Dweinasen
word for hole, akkalon, which also gives Cuolese acalo "anus". On the other
hand, the Rhendrin word for hole, "peavath" comes from the Dweinasen word
for cesspit, kwebnad, from the root KWEB, to defacate.

Dan

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Ka yokonáu iti báyan: "cas'alyá abhiyo".

Ka tso iti mantabayan: "yama zaláyá
alánekayam la s'alika, cas'alika; ka yama
yavarryekayan arannáam la vácika, labekayam
vácika, ka ali cas'alyeko vanotira."
-----------------------------------------------
Dan Jones

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