Is it Irish to be Cuil?

[Joel S. Berson]

At 7/30/2008 12:08 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>At 11:57 AM -0400 7/30/08, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>>At 7/30/2008 11:39 AM, RonButters at AOL.COM wrote:
>>
>>>If they want it pronounced like "cool" they will do well to use a different
>>>brand name in   the Spanish-speaking countries
>>>(and even the French might see
>>>it as an indecent pun).
>
>Well, in French _cul_ is 'ass' (with the fundament, not donkey
>reference) or 'arse' if you prefer,

And an on-line Irish dictionary tells me "cúil"
is "rear (adj,
n)"!  http://www.englishirishdictionary.com/
Someone should put this out on the Web.

Joel

>but I'm not sure the pun really
>comes up since the pronunciation is /ky/ (with a front-rounded vowel
>and no final consonant).  In any case, _cul_ appears elsewhere with
>the obscene meaning bleached out, as in _cul de sac_ 'dead end', lit.
>'bag's ass'.  I guess _culo_ would be more problematic, but Romance
>speakers must be used to English speakers saying _cool_, after all.
>
>LH
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org