HUMOR?: fruitbats (wasRe: Butterflies)

--- In conlang@yahoogroups.com, Yann Kiraly <yann_kiraly@G...> wrote:
>
> What exactley is a fruitbat? Is it an especialy big bat or does it
> specialise on fruit?

1. If a game similar to baseball, cricket, tennis, or badminton is
played with a fruit, rather than a ball or a bird, the bat used to
hit the fruit is called a "fruitbat".

2. If, when building a house or other structure out of fruit, some of
the fruit is broken, the broken pieces are called "fruitbats".  (By
analogy with "brickbats").

3.  A piece of fruit hurled as a weapon is called a "fruitbat".
(Also by analogy with "brickbat".

----

I'm sure there are other definitions.

E.g. from Wikipedia: "Bats, or Batsi, Batsbi, Batsb, Batsaw, is the
language of the Bats people, a Caucasian minority group, and is part
of the Nakh family of Caucasian languages. It had 2,500 to 3,000
speakers in 1975. There is only one dialect. It exists only as a
spoken language, as the Bats people use Georgian as their written
language. Until the middle of the 19th century, the Bats lived in
Tushetia, the mountain region of Northwest Georgia. The Tsova Gorge
in Tushetia was inhabited by four Bats communities: the Sagirta,
Otelta, Mozarta and Indurta. Later they settled on the Kakhetia
Plain, in the village of Zemo-Alvani, where they still live.
Administratively they are part of the Akhmeta district of Georgia.
There are some families of Bats in Tbilisi and other bigger towns in
Georgia.
Bats belongs to the Nakh family of Caucasian languages.
Most speakers of Bats live in the village of Zemo-Alvani, on the
Kakhetia Plain, in the Akhmeta district of Georgia. There are some
families of Bats in Tbilisi and other bigger towns in Georgia."

A member of this people whose elevator didn't go all the way to the
top might be called a "fruitbat"; or, that might not be politically
correct.

-----

Tom H.C. in MI

Replies