[Lexicog] A folk-etymology

[Andrew Dunbar]

On 6/2/06, Mike Maxwell <maxwell at ldc.upenn.edu> wrote:
> Michael Nicholas wrote:
> >> Parabrisas is "windscreen" in Spanish as spoken here in Spain. I
> >> imagine if you were asked to define "parasol" the answer would involve
> >> something like "to ward off the rays, light, heat of the sun"
> >
> > */rtroike at email.arizona.edu/* escribió:
> >
> > Someone a few days ago (pardon, I've forgotten who) mentioned the
> > Spanish word "paracaidas" ("parachute"), and etymologized
>  > the "para" as the preposition meaning "for" ("caida" is "fall"),
>  > citing "paraguas" ("umbrella") as a parallel ("for water").
> >
> > I had always folk-etymologized the "para" part the same way myself,
> > and just happened to learn from a student recently that it is
>  > actually the verb "parar" ("to stop, prevent, hinder").
>  > Checking the online OED for "parachute", I found
>  > that the "para" part here is from the same source, and the
> > "chute" is cognate with the Spanish "caida".
>
> I'm the one who wrote that 'para' in these constructions is 'for'.
>
> I was in the process of writing one of my typical long-winded replies
> about arguments on both sides, when I ran into some deciding cases in
> Spanish (from my own notes on this subject, no less, showing how
> forgetful I'm getting).  Yes, this is probably a form of the verb
> 'parar' "to stop", not the preposition 'para' "for".  The evidence is
> from other Spanish compounds of this sort, where the left-hand member is
> definitely a verb (I'll put the 'r' of the infinitive in parens):
>
>    sacamuelas < saca(r) "to extract" + muelas "teeth", "dentist"
>    lavaplatos < lava(r) "to wash" + platos "dishes", "dishwasher"
>
> There are probably others.

Indeed there are. I've been interested in these for some time and have
been collecting them. So far I have 105 listed on the English
Wiktionary here:
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:Spanish_verb_plus_plural_noun_compounds

My particular favourite is "chupacabras".

> AFAIK, there are no such compounds where the
> left-hand member is unambiguously a preposition.  So on the assumption
> that this is a uniform construction, my etymology (and synchronic
> analysis, to the extent that these are productive and transparent) was
> wrong.

I was going to suggest "anteojo" but the RAE informs me that it came
from Latin so
the left-hand member was unambiguosly a Latin preposition - not quite the same
thing though still interesting.

Andrew Dunbar (hippietrail)

>     Mike Maxwell
>
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