Taboo replacements

[Miguel Carrasquer Vidal]

Larry Trask <larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk> wrote:

>(5) looks good, if the word is real, but how would an Amharic word
>	get into Spanish and Portuguese?  (Of course, the Portuguese
>	were all over east Africa early on, but in Ethiopia?)

Oh yes.  The Portuguese were very interested in Ethiopia (which
they thought was the land of the legendary Prester John), feeling
they badly needed a Christian ally against the Muslims in East
Africa.  They dispatched an army of 400 musketeers to Ethiopia in
1541 to help against a Muslim army, and remained the main power
in Ethiopia for a century [until they overplayed their hand by
forcing Catholicism on the Ethiopian Christians].

=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv at wxs.nl
Amsterdam