[Magdalen] Like I Was Puzzled.

[ME Michaud]

Am remembering the linguistics class where we were taught about
French vs. Anglo-Saxon words in English.

When the animals were still farm animals, they had Anglo-Saxon
names (because the Anglo-Saxon serfs raised them). Pig, cow,
sheep. When the animal became food, it got a French name:
pork, beef, mutton. Because the Normans ate them.

One of the many unveilings in my teen years.

A friend from Barcelona was teasing a Mexican colleague one day
because of the word for car/automobile. Apparently the Spanish
created a new word for this but the Mexican gal used a word that
referred to a horse-drawn carriage. Blame colonialism, I guess.
-M