Now, I'm no expert. I don't claim to be the final authority on anything I may post. I aim to share my love of words with others. My particular interest is in the origin of words and how they morph over time.
Gangplank. Isn't that the board on a ship where they send people to their death at sea? I guess it's used as a board to embark and disembark. Maybe the death at sea was something I saw in a pirate movie.
Take the Norwegian word "gående" which, depending on which part of Norway you're in, is roughly pronounced "gawin' na." It is the present participle of the verb "to go" (å gå), like the English word "going." "Å gå" in Norwegian means "to walk," which is precisely what one does on the gangplank. The Norwegian words for "entrance" and "exit" are "ingang" and "utgang." Knowing that the Vikings settled in England and influenced the language, to me the gangplank is a going plank, or a gående plank.
No comments:
Post a Comment