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Frenchman, Englishman, Spaniard

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Dimandja

Dimandja

Programmer
Apr 29, 2002
2,720
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Why Englishman? Isn't English sufficient?
And, pray tell, why Spaniard? Is that to distinguish from the american spanish speakers?
 
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As for Spaniard, you'll have to ask the French. According to YourDictionary.com, the word is a borrowing from Old French.


English/Englishman? It's probably just idiomatic.

English, when used as a noun in a geopolitical or linguistic context, refers to the language English, the speakers (as a group) of that language, or natives or residents (as a group) of England.

Englishman is a disambiguation generally referring to a single instantiation of a member of the group of English who are native to England.




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TANSTAAFL!!
 
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Old French name for Spain: Espaigne; it's inhabitant: Espaniard.

New french name for the country: Espagne; inhabitant: Espagnol.

So, I guess, Englishmen never bothered to upgrade that one.
 
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Why should they? They had a perfectly usable word.

Besides, now that French royalty don't control the English courts any more, there's not much impetus to keep current in language borrowings.


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TANSTAAFL!!
 
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It is worth pointing out that Norman French was scoffed at by the toffs in Paris...
 
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Language is irrational, English especially and different nations got different endings attached. Sweden/Swede, Norway/Norwgian, Dutch/Dutchman or Dutchwoman, Britain/Briton, Russia/Russsian, Poland/Pole, Belgium/Belgian. US citizens are mostly called Americans but sometimes Yanks; i.e. the entire New World or else the US North-East.

There was an older form, Englisher, Hollander etc., but this has vanished from English. A language where inconsistency is consistent and the flammable is also inflamable.

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A view [tiger] from the UK
 
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We still use that older form for at least one city or state name:

New Yorker

I can't think of any others like this! But there are other forms:

San Franciscan
Oregonian
Texan
Denverite (?)

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It is better to have honor than a good reputation.
(Reputation is what other people think about you. Honor is what you know about yourself.)
 
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Don't forget that a person from Sydney, NSW, Australia is a "Sydneysider".

And I've heard a person from Liverpool, England called a "Liverpudlian", which is probably a pun based on the fact that a puddle is smaller than a pool.




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TANSTAAFL!!
 
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sleipnir214
Actually, natives of Liverpool are usually called "Scousers", they seem to prefer it. After Lobscouse, "a sailor's dish of meat stewed with vegetables and ship's biscuit" (OED, again!)

Rosie
"Never express yourself more clearly than you think" (Niels Bohr)
 
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There's no lobster in lobscouse?!?!?! [smile]

Although I suppose "meat" could include crustaceans...

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It is better to have honor than a good reputation.
(Reputation is what other people think about you. Honor is what you know about yourself.)
 
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Rosie
Liverpudlian is formal, scouser is informal and used to be derogatory. It's another example of where a term of abuse gets taken up as a term of pride by the abused. c.f. 'nigger' for afro-american. I still can't see the BBC news describing someone as a scouser whereas they would use liverpudlian.

On the main thread, we in the UK have slang names for the inhabitants of many of our major cities: cockneys, jordies and brummies for London, Newcastle and Birmingham. As an inhabitant of Blackpool I'm a 'SandGrownUn'. Is this a British phenonenom?

Columb Healy
Living with a seeker after the truth is infinitely preferable to living with one who thinks they've found it.
 
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Esquared:
Just found this here:
Scouse is also a kind of stew, more properly known as lobscouse. This latter word is of obscure origin but is synonymous with loblolly. It is supposed that the lob part of the words is the same as the dialect word lob meaning "to bubble noisily while boiling" which was applied especially to porridge. The lolly in loblolly seems to be an obsolete Devonshire word for "broth, soup, or other food which is boiled in a pot". The earliest recorded use of scouse (the soup) may well be in "Two Years Before the Mast" by R. H. Dana (1840) - "The cook had just made for us a mess of hot scouse".
Click to expand...
from
rosieb said:
a sailor's dish of meat stewed with vegetables and ship's biscuit
Click to expand...
Hmmm. German "Labskaus" rather looks like something put together from the remnants of the cuisine of a ship run aground... [licklips] Additionally to meat, it contains beetrot, a herring, cucmber...
So, though I was hoping the contrary, the nasty constellation of Labskaus does not seem to come from English glands... [lol]

Andy
 
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I'm pleased to know that one can, at least, lob a lobster! And I'm not talking about throwing it.

-------------------------------------
It is better to have honor than a good reputation.
(Reputation is what other people think about you. Honor is what you know about yourself.)
 
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