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Re: USAGE: Dutch v or f (was: Grimm's Law)

From:Maarten van Beek <dungeonmaster@...>
Date:Wednesday, April 24, 2002, 7:12
> Van: daniel andreasson > Onderwerp: Re: Dutch v or f (was: Grimm's Law) > > There's a Swedish word _fock_ meaning 'fore-sail, jib'. It > is said to originally have meant 'wedge'. And I can see how > 'wedge' have come to mean 'fuck' and then 'fokken'. :)
Yes, and traditionally, on western european ships, the jib is a triangularly shaped sail, as opposed to the square-shaped mainsail. Nowadays, we have triangular mainsails as wel ("torenzeil" in Dutch) besides the square mainsails ("gaffelzeil" in Dutch). And since a wedge is also triangular in shape... Maarten