Blogs > Cliopatria > verboten verbs

Apr 29, 2006

verboten verbs




Ralph Luker deploys a verb whose acceptability on television and in common speech mystifies me.

But were I confident in Neal Stephenson's etymology, I would be less puzzled:

"... she rides far too low in the water, and so she's got a great ugly Zog."...
"Zog is Dutch for 'wake' then?"
Dappa the linguist smiles yes...."And a much better word it is, because it comes from zuigen which means 'to suck.'... Any seaman will tell you that a ship's wake sucks on her stern, holding her backā€”the bigger the wake, the greater the suck, and the slower the progress. That schooner, Doctor Waterhouse, sucks."

That joke kept me going for the whole Baroque Cycle. Yes, I know, I'm easy.



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