Re: Introducing Paul Burgess and his radioactive imagination!

Christophe Grandsire scripsit:

> In Spanish it's "caucho". I think it's a borrowing from a South American
> language, which would explain its strangeness in French.
English "caoutchouc" < Fr. < early mod. Spanish "cauchuc" < Quechua
"kawchu".  (I wonder why the Spaniards heard a final stop in the Que. word?)

In English "caoutchouc" is applied only to the plant product in bulk form,
viz. polymerized isoprene, not to any of its imitations or derivative
products, nor to any of the various things that can be made of it.
I think it is the only English word (other than proper names such as
"Raoul") which contains "aou".

> > Nowadays ('de nos jours' seems wrong for something personal),
"De mes jours"?  Or is that more like "in my time", which is also primarily
applied to matters of public consequence?

--
They do not preach                              John Cowan
  that their God will rouse them                jcowan@reutershealth.com
    A little before the nuts work loose.        http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
They do not teach                               http://www.reutershealth.com
  that His Pity allows them                         --Rudyard Kipling,
    to drop their job when they damn-well choose.   "The Sons of Martha"

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