Haven’t been blogging recently. Meant to note a word I hadn’t come across before blet ‘to rot’ < Old French blet ‘decayed, rotten’ (> bletier) < Frankish blet ‘pale, sallow, pallid’. [via Laura’s persimmon entry at limon] I never did care for persimmons, but I had an earlier facination with quinces. Next letter over in the fruitish alphabet. Came across an interesting blog (Hanzi Smatters) that chronicles the misusage of hanzi (Chinese characters) in Western culture. [via Language Log] I really cannot imagine getting a tattoo, but getting a tattoo of incorrectly formed hanzi is just too bizarre.
[Addendum 12/06/04: Thanks to MM and misteraitch for pointing me at their respective entries on the medlar and its bletting. I also noticed today (in Meyer-Lübke) that French blesser ‘to wound’ derives from the Frankish verb blettian ‘to rot, decay; to wound’, and which unintentionally ties back to my tongue-in-cheek subject heading. The German Mispel, Basque mesmeru, mizpila, and Italian nespola come from Latin mespilus (variant *nespilus).]
Posted by jim at December 5, 2004 10:45 AM | TrackBackIt also came up in connection with my picture of medlars, in the comments. I think the persimmons are merely unripe, whereas the medlars are ripe but need to rot.
Posted by: MM on December 6, 2004 08:28 AMThanks, MM. I'd missed that in the comments.
Posted by: jim on December 6, 2004 08:39 AMThere’s a little more about medlars & bletting here, from my own recent discovery of the term.
Posted by: misteraitch on December 6, 2004 01:46 PM