The word fart, considered by many folks to be vulgar, is here to stay, as is the reality behind it. The word is classified as onomatopoeia, which means the sound of the word reflects what it is defining.
Every language that I know has a word for it. They all tend to imitate what they hear as the sound, as sort of a fffft. I know that some people consider etymology the second most dismal science, but every once in a while, a fascinating revelation bursts forth.
This happened to me recently as I looked up a word. The word was the seemingly innocent word partridge. Now partridges are members of the pheasant family.
They eat insects, berries, seeds. They nest on the ground. They weigh less than a pound, but they can run very quickly, which saves them from many a predator.
But then came the shocker. The name partridge derived from a Greek verb, which from time immemorial has meant to fart. It's not so much this particular bird is prone to fatulence.
It's just that the noise that it makes as it flies away reminded some people as a fart. That has“to be some takeoff.
Well, intrigued, I decided to do a wild card search on etymologies containing break wind, fart, flatulence. That's when a second surprise erupted. The German district of Westphalia was known for its pumpernickel, a coarse black bread not always fully appreciated.
In fact, in early modern German, pumper meant fart. As the Oxford English Dictionary delicately puts it, this type of bread was probably so called either on account of its being difficult to digest and causing flatulence, or in a more general allusion to its hardness and poor quality. Hidden farts also lurk in the word feisty, aggressive, and touchy.
Like O'Purdone, a fungus puffball translated as wolf's fart. Onopurdone, a genus of thistles translated as donkey fart. Petticoel, a louse translated as small fart.
And poop, from a German verb, meaning to fart. Now I can't wait to have a partridge sandwich on pumpernickel. Pass the beano, please.
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