Napoleans etymological impact - was Genitalia

David Bergdahl bergdahl at OHIO.EDU
Fri Sep 29 12:35:12 UTC 2000


>>This reminds me a bit of the case of "vasistas", the French word for
>>transom, which is generally assumed to have come about through
>>someone mistaking the illocutionary point of "Was ist das?"
>>
>>-- supposedly Napolean
>
>And the supposed etymology of Pumpernickel:  The story I heard was
>that Napolean was given some of this bread - and he hated it.  He
>said it was only good for his horse, named Nicole - thus, bon pour
>Nicole...
>
>Rima

Ah, yes! our French teachers must've been "of a certain age"  :-)

____________________________________________________________________
David Bergdahl          http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~bergdahl            tel:
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