Cackalacka, Cackalacky, and variants [long]

Fri Jul 8 23:46:43 UTC 2005

On Fri, 8 Jul 2005 18:39:49 -0400, Douglas G. Wilson <douglas at NB.NET> wrote:

>At 01:04 PM 7/8/2005, you wrote:
>>German presents a word that sounds almost the same as Cackalacka, viz.
>>"Kakerlake" (= cockroach).
>
>Somebody else seems to have had a similar notion:
>
>http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0206A&L=ADS-L&P=R3393&I=-3

And Doug's words live on at Horst Conrad's German etymology site:

http://www.etymologie.info/~e/d_/de-tiere_.html

--Ben Zimmer