Re: CHAT: F.L.O.E.S.

On Sunday, February 22, 2004, at 02:49 PM, Tristan McLeay wrote:

> On Sun, 22 Feb 2004, Mark J. Reed wrote:
>
>> On Sun, Feb 22, 2004 at 02:02:00PM +0100, Carsten Becker wrote:
>>> As for James' word: He mentioned he went to a "sea-food" restaurant.
>>> When I
>>> read "hake" I immediately thought that dish may be some kind of Sushi.
>>> Perhaps that was what James thought it to be? "Hake" could pretty well
>>> be
>>> Japanese, too.
>>
>> You got us backwards.  It was I who went to the seafood restaurant,
>> and James who is driven nuts by the mispronunciation of foreign words.
>> :)
>>
>> I did assume that the name was either Japanese or Hawaiian.
>
> See now, I think the problem is not FLOES, but FNCUES: fish and chips
> under-exposure syndrome.
Spot on!!

> If America had its fair share or fish and chips
> shops, you'd eventually have seen the word before being over-exposed to
> foreign languages.
Quite so.  I read Mark's original email with some incredulity, followed by
the sort of amusement I guess he gave the waiter   ;)

I can't think of a time when I didn't know that 'hake' was pronounced
/hejk/; in fact, I think it's likely I knew the word before I knew the
spelling. But then I suppose that's because I live on a smallish island
where "fish'n'chips" is the national dish  :)

>  (I don't think I've never seen a fish-and-chips shop
> selling hake,
I like the doubled negative  :-)
Yep - IME they always sell it.

The word BTW is one of those "etymology uncertain" things lost in the
mists of time. It's generally considered to be of Scandinavian origin.  My
dictionary quotes Norwegian 'hake-fisk' (hook-fish) for comparison.

Ray
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