query: sarcastic antonymic nicknames

[ludwig.paul at UNI-HAMBURG.DE]

To say, "how ugly is she" or the like points to a different phenomenon. In Iran and 
adjacent areas, people used (and use) to call their new-born children by "wrong",  
made-up names, to distract "bad views / bad eyes" from them.

For the same reason, grandfathers/grandmothers used to call their grandsons/-
daughters "grandfather/-mother", so the devils/demons around everywhere in the air 
are not made aware that there is a new-born target for them.

All best,
Ludwig Paul
Hamburg

Am 26 Nov 2009 um 15:23 hat Dolgor Guntsetseg geschrieben:

> 
> oh sorry, I forgot such cases. I think that is possible. But not common. Unfortunately, I have no 
> instances at the moment.
> 
> BTW, we say to the children, mostly babies "How ugly is he/she!" or someting like that. But it is 
> not negative, not sarcastic. It means "How sweet/cute is he/she".
> 
> Gunne