Saturday, March 26, 2016

Random Fact of the Day: Every Tom, Dick, and Harry

Many cultures have generic placeholder names. In American English, we have "Tom, Dick, and Harry" (that is, 'any/all men'), and "John Doe" or "Richard Roe"  (an anonymous/unknown person, although the latter is rather archaic now); while in the UK & Australia there's also "Joe Bloggs" and "John Smith".
For some languages, the 'names' aren't actual names you'll find on people; rather, they literally just mean "anonymous" or "whoever"; but others are (or were) in general usage [indicated by bold].

Arabic:
  • "Fulan" --- "whoever"
  • "Fulan bin Fulan" --- "whoever, son of whoever"

Bulgarian:
  • "Petar Petrov"

Chinese:
  • "Zhang San", "Li Si", "Wang Wu" -- "Zhang Three", "Li Four", "Wang Five" [Zhang, Li, & Wang are surnames]
  • "Wang Xiaoming", "Chen Xiaoming", "Chen Tai Man"

Danish:
  • "Morten Menigmand" -- "Morten Ordinary-man"

Dutch:
  • "Jan Jansen"

Finnish:
  • "Matti  & Maija Meikäläinen" -- "Matti & Maija One-of-us"

French:
  • "Jean Dupont"
  • "Pierre, Paul, & Jacques"

German:
  • "Hinz & Kunz"/ "Heinrich & Konrad"
  • "Lieschen Müller"
  • "Max & Erika Mustermann" --- "Max and Erika Sample-man"
  • "Otto Normalverbraucher" --- "Otto Average-consumer"

Hebrew:
  • "Ploni", "Ploni Almoni" -- poss. "indicated", "indicated hidden"; a Biblical placeholder name

Hungarian:
  • "Minta János" -- "John Sample"

Irish:
  • "Seán Ó Rudaí" -- "Sean O'Things"

Italian:
  • "Tizio, Caio, e Sempronio" -- modern Italian version of Roman placeholders (Titus, Caius, & Sempronius)

Japanese:
  • "Daredare" -- "whoever"

Lithuanian:
  • "Jonas Jonaitis", "Petras Petraitis"
  • "Vardenis Pavardenis" (m) / "Vardenė Pavardenė" (f) -- "Name Surname"

Norwegian:
  • "Ola & Kari Nordmann" --- "Ola & Kari Norwegian"

Persian:
  • "Fulan" -- "whoever"
  • "Bahman" --- "whoever"
  • "Fulan o Bahman" --- "whoever and whoever"

Polish:
  • "Jan Kowalski" / "Janina Kowalska"
  • "Jan Novak"

Portuguese: 
  • "Fulano" -- "whoever"
  • "Fulano, Sicrano e Beltrano" / "Fulana, Sicrana e Beltrana"  -- "whoever, _____, & Beltrano" [origin of Sicrano is unknown; Beltrano is a surname]

Russian:
  • "Imyarek" -- "name"
  • "Ivan Ivanovich Ivanov", "Pyotr Petrovich Petrov", "Sidor Sidorovich Sidorov" -- sometimes mix-and-match

Serbian:
  • "Pera Perić"

Slovak:
  • "Janko Mrkvička", "Jožko Mrkvička"  -- "Johnny Carrot", "Joey Carrot"

Spanish:
  • "Fulano" / "Fulanita" -- "whoever"
  • "Fulano, Mengano, y Zutano" -- "whoever, whoever, & _____?" [poss. related to Latin scire "to know"]
  • "Juan Perez" [Latin America]

Swedish:
  • "Medelsvensson" -- "average Svensson"

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Flowers A-Z

Happy Spring! I'm going to celebrate with a flower post! But, since I do have a tendency to go a bit overboard with the long lists, I'm imposing two rules on myself: one flower/name per letter, and only names I've not mentioned before on here.
*cracks knuckles*
Here we go.

  • Aubretia (aw-BREE-shah)--also called Aubrieta (aw-bree-ET-tah) [does this count as breaking a rule already?]
  • Bergenia (ber-GEEN-ee-ah, ber-JEN-ee-ah)
  • Clematis (klem-AT-is, KLEM-ah-tis)
  • Diascia (dye-AY-shah)
  • Eglantine (EG-lan-tine, eg-lan-TEEN) [I tried to find something else, I really did. How are there so few flowers starting with E?]
  • Freesia (FREE-zhah)
  • Gaura (GOHR-ah, GAWR-ah)
  • Heliantha (hee-lee-AN-thah) or Helianthe (hee-lee-AN-thee) [from Helianthus, a sunflower genus. Cheating?]
  • 'Ilima (ee-LEE-mah)
  • Justicia (jus-TIS-ee-ah, jus-TISH-ah)
  • Kerria (KEHR-ee-ah)
  • Lupin (LOO-pin)--also spelled Lupine (American English)
  • Malva (MAHL-vah)
  • Nigella (nye-JEL-lah)
  • Orris (OR-ris)
  • Plumeria (ploo-MEHR-ee-ah)
  • Quince (KWINS)
  • Ruellia (roo-EL-lee-ah)
  • Scilla (SIL-lah)
  • Tamarisk (TAM-ah-risk)--also called Tamarix (TAM-ah-riks)
  • Ursinia (oor-SIN-ee-ah)
  • Vinca (VEEN-kah)
  • Wulfenia (wool-FEEN-ee-ah)
  • Xeranthe (zehr-AN-thee) or Xerantha (zehr-AN-thah) [from Xeranthemum, another sunflower genus]
  • Yarrow (YEHR-oh)--I failed. I've used Yarrow before, but I can't come up with any other flowering plants for Y. :(
  • Zephyranthe (zef-er-AN-thee) [from Zephyranthes, an amaryllis genus]