Re: Today's word: "brush"

Herman Miller <hmiller@...> wrote:

<<<
For the Lindiga vocabulary, I decided to extend this meaning of "brush"
to also include brooms; the Lindiga word for both "brush" and "broom" is
"vlira". This is distinguished from the other usage of "brush", meaning
"dense vegetation", which is "rteku".
The nouns aren't so bad, but the verbs can get tricky. There are a
couple of possibilities:
using a word derived from "brush" as a verb:
>>>
Same in Pisina ( http://takatunu.free.fr/index ) sokani "brush" is verbized
into sokakani "to brush" (I
pronounce [sukkani]). Sokakani fuzzily means "to use/do as/with a brush" so
you usually precise in what way:

     "brush your teeth" (as in English) --- sokakani (ya sototoka) silika
"brush (rubbingly) tooth"
     "brush your hair" (as in English) --- sokakani (ya pisosoka) moliso
"brush (combingly) hair"
     "brush the paint (onto the wall)" --- sokakani (ya kolalasa) timasa
"brush paintingly wall"
     "brush the wall (with paint)" --- sokakani (ya kamikamisa paniti kolasa
ikai) timasa "brush (applyingly paint to) wall"

<<<
using a word more closely related to the action performed by the brush:
>>>
     "paint the wall (with a brush)" (as in English) --- sokakani ya
kolalasa timasa "brush paintingly wall"
     "clean your teeth (with a brush)" --- sokakani ya malomaloko silika
"brush makingly-clean tooth
     "smooth your hair (with a brush)" --- sokakani ya pisosoka moliso
"brush combingly hair"
     "color the wall (with a brush and paint)" --- sokakani (ya kolalasa) ya
palolota timasa "brush (paintingly) colouringly wall"

<<<
using an unrelated word with meaning similar to "brush": "sweep your hair"
Then you get into the extended uses of "brush", roughly meaning
something like "touch lightly", "graze", "have a close encounter" (and
the related nouns: e.g., "a brush with death"). Lindiga distinguishes
these meanings by having one word meaning "apply with a brush", another
meaning "sweep", and another meaning "graze" (in this sense, not the one
of "eating grass"), without a single word that is directly equivalent to
"brush" as a verb. So in Lindiga you
>>>
     "brush (toothpaste) onto your teeth" (vliramich), --- sokakani ya
kamakamasi (paniti maloko silika) ikai silika "brush applyingly (toothpaste)
onto tooth"
     "brush (paint) onto the wall", --- sokakani ya kamakamasi (paniti
kolasa) ikai timasa "brush applyingly paint to wall"
     "sweep your hair" (tlösich), --- sokakani ya pisosoka moliso
"brush/comb hair" or less good: pisosoka moliso ipai sokani "comb hair with
brush"
     "graze death" (kyrtich). --- polalaso pawakisi "carress death"

µ.