this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2024
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Today I Learned

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[–] aBundleOfFerrets@sh.itjust.works 10 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Ancient egyptians didn’t speak english

[–] GetOffMyLan@programming.dev 46 points 2 months ago (1 children)

They likely weren't called that in ancient Egypt lol

[–] Mr_Blott@feddit.uk 23 points 2 months ago (1 children)

They lived in Modern Egypt at the time

[–] warbond@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] Mr_Blott@feddit.uk 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You've clearly never been to Egypt this century lol

[–] nomous@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I visited about 25 years ago and can confirm it was like living in a different century.

[–] expatriado@lemmy.world 25 points 2 months ago (1 children)

there is a capitalized AND to imply this is a 2 for 1 til deal

[–] Dasus@lemmy.world 19 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

Yeah, it was the sap of marsh mallow that the Egyptians used.

Saying that doesn't mean that they think Egyptians used the English word "marshmallow".

Edit but it likely was something like their words for those things, which then got translated again and again and again.

The original connotation didn't reach us. My native language calls the modern sweet "foam candy" (vaahtokarkki)

[–] Carighan@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

My country calls it "mice bacon" (Mäusespeck). 😅

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That doesn't make sense in any way.

[–] Carighan@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Apparently it's based on the fact that the colour reminded people of the bacon used in mouse traps. Although it's a bit unclear, it could also play into things that the first company to sell marshmallows en masse in Germany used mice-shaped ones.

[–] kofe@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Ooo what do you call cotton candy?

[–] Dasus@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Hattara.

It doesn't directly translate into anything. Sort of connotates the flimsiness of the product, but much else.

Hattara sounds like it could be an iron age god tbh.

Oh, oh. I wasn't too wrong. Hattara is a Finnish mythical being. https://fi.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hattara_(mytologia)

In French, the word "hattara" means father's beard, and in Greek, the word "hattara" means old women's hair.

I love etymology but Finnish ones aren't as easy to figure out as English / other PIE languages

[–] kofe@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

Thank you for the reply! I've never been big on etymology but I might need to get more into it, that's so neat.

[–] Dkarma@lemmy.world 14 points 2 months ago
[–] grandel@lemmy.ml 10 points 2 months ago

They also didn't speak German. What point are you trying to make?