

Though illegal in many parts of the world, some countries still use this method to capture wild birds for eating. Coils of the sticky substance are placed on tree branches. Birdlime, or a juice made from mistletoe berries, is used as an adhesive to trap small birds. It’s a plant that kills in more ways than one. Size matters at this special speed dating event for well-endowed men and. Some versions claim he came back to life, and his mother, Frigg, cried tears that turned into mistletoe berries and then declared the plant to be symbolic of love. German photographer Thomas Struth poses for a portrait during a preview of. In Norse mythology, the plant plays a key part in a story with a violent conclusion the god Balder is killed by his blind brother, Hoor, with, of all things, a mistletoe projectile. That plant you’re kissing under could be a … “dung-twig.”Īnother tradition that has raised questions before is, why do we sing “Auld Lang Syne” on New Year’s? Let’s find out! The dark side of the mistletoe So we can safely say this has nothing whatsoever to do with your toes. Because mistletoe can be spread through birds’ feces, it is possible that mistel derives from an obsolete, Germanic-derived noun mix, meaning “dung, filth.” The word mistletoe comes from the Old English misteltan, with tan meaning “twig” and mistel meaning, well, “mistletoe.” (Middle English speakers apparently confused tan as the plural of ta, “toe,” which is how we ultimately get mistletoe).Īs for the roots of mistel, that etymology is obscure, though the word has cousins in Germanic languages. and blazing prefixes, affixes & interjections broidered on them or hung to. One way to harvest mistletoe is to climb high in the tree to get the clusters another way is to blast them out with a shotgun. While the German language has always been particularly willing to borrow from. Mistletoe can cause Witches’-broom, a symptom of a disease that results in clusters of weak shoots, in the host tree. Mistletoe is a plant that grows parasitically on trees. What is this tradition of kissing under a plant all about? And does the name have anything to do with human toes? What is mistletoe? See also boiserie, boscage, bosquet and bouquet, and compare ambush entry 1.If you celebrate Christmas, it’s likely that at some point this season you’ll find yourself puckering up under a mistletoe branch. Also widespread in Middle English, especially east midland and northern, and in early Scots, are forms without palatalized sk, as bosk(e), buske (compare bosky), which have been attributed both to Old Norse and to Anglo-French bosc. Hubschmied explains *busk- as an outcome in an original u-stem, with *bosk- resulting from lowering before a non-high vowel in the next syllable alternatively, the -u- could simply result from failure of lowering. Note that beside *busk- a form *bosk- is evident in Middle English and elsewhere, especially Romance. Like the kidneys, the colon is well endowed with. While western men are well endowed and sensitive and giving lovers. What does a female gain from such a well-endowed partner 5. The islands are well endowed with ponds, lakes and streams. There now seems little question that the etymon is Germanic, and that corresponding Romance words are borrowed from Germanic. The city is well-endowed with modern medical facilities. Zur Geschichte von bois, bûche (mit Berücksichtigung der Ortsnamen)," Vox Romanica, Band 29 (1970), pp. The genuine depth of Germanic attestation for *buska- and congeners was thoroughly explicated by Johannes Hubschmied in "Romanisch-germanische Wortprobleme I. An earlier opinion, propounded in Skeat and the Oxford English Dictionary, first edition, was that the Germanic words were borrowed from "Late Latin" however, Latin boscus "wood, woodland"-the form buscus is less frequent-is not attested before the early eighth century. You can also watch English movies with German subtitles to see the corresponding. The Old High German forms are attested only in glosses from the twelfth century or later. German Curse Words: Swearing and Insults as Part of German Slang.

Old English *busc is perhaps evident in the place name Wardebusc, Veardebusc (modern Warboys in Huntingdonshire), attested in tenth-century charters, though Ekwall ( Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names) took it as of Scandinavian origin. The Germanic pedigree of *buska- is relatively meager for the early periods.
