Re: (OT) Re: Anthroponymy (was Re: Re: Laadan)

 --- Roger Mills skrzypszy:

> > Then I've got news for you: a "koevoet" IS a crowbar (in the genitive
> > form)!
>
> Also lit. "cow-foot", no?  I like the smaller version, the carpenter's
> nail-pulling tool called "cat's paw".
To be honest, I don't know what that thing is called in Dutch.

> A while back someone mentioned that when the Dutch were officially required
> to adopt surnames (Napoleonic era?), a lot of people, either out of spite or
> mere whimsy, took such "funny" names.  In that regard, and speaking of cows,
> my new neighbor, whose name is Bont, recently explained that it was
> shortened from Bontekoe "Spotted Cow".  (That would be Dutch, not Native
> American)
Well, not exactly. The adjective "bont" rather means "colourful". But Bontekoe
is a much older name (quite famous actually; Bontekoe was the captain of a ship
that went to the East Indies in the 17th century, and his journal was the basis
for a wonderful book by J. Fabricius). It has nothing to do with Napoleon.

Jan

=====
"Originality is the art of concealing your source." - Franklin P. Jones

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