Re: most looked-up words
| From: | Mark Reed <markjreed@...> |
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| Date: | Tuesday, December 7, 2004, 1:06 |
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On Tue, 7 Dec 2004 11:38:54 +1100, Tristan Mc Leay
<conlang@...> wrote:
> Also, ten points to anyone who can tell me what a 'kudo' is.
A back-formation from interpreted-as-plural "kudos"(*), which is a
Greek borrowing denoting awards or honor. "kudos to X" has become a
set phrase meaning more or less "X should be congratulated".
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?va=kudo
(*) Similarly, the sandwich formed by wrapping up a mostly-lamb meat
mixture in a pita is pretty universally referred to as "a gyro"
/'ji.ro/ in the US, despite the singularity of the source "gyros".
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