Non-native linguistic detachment

[Joel S. Berson]

At 12/24/2007 04:56 PM, ronbutters at AOL.COM wrote:
>Germans I have asked have never noticed the relationship between the
>component parts of HANDSCHUH (not sure I spelled it right) and its
>meaning 'glove'.

Along the same lines, but not the least bit linguistically
significant: When my brother was delegated by his aunt to buy
elbow-length gloves at Le Printemps in Paris, he couldn't remember
the word for elbow.  So he asked for (as I remember his translation
to me) "gloves of the length of the knee of the arm."  (With no
knowledge of French, I have  no idea how close a translation this
was.)  The salesgirl smiled, and brought out the proper article.

Joel

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