Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2007 October 5

= October 5 =

Plural form of German nouns
Does anyone know a site or a book that lists the singular and plural forms of German nouns? Thanks. 206.45.160.33 01:16, 5 October 2007 (UTC)
 * You might try a German grammar.
 * But if you wish to find a particular plural on the basis of a known singular, you could try : enter the singular and in the box below, click Wörterbuch Wortformen. Bessel Dekker 01:35, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, that's exactly what I needed! Thanks again! 206.45.160.33 01:43, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Ceaser = caeser
I have been trying to search the meaning of my last name Ceaser yet it is quite difficult because my last name is often redirected automatically to Caesar. I was wondering, is that way on your site because it is often misspelled or because Ceaser is just an americanized version of Caesar? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.136.223.206 (talk) 04:11, 5 October 2007 (UTC)


 * The standardised spelling of names is quite recent. My beloved has been hunting through census records from 1851-1901 which are now available online for his family history, and he has found one individual whose surname was spelled *l, *ll and *le in different records and as he moved around the country. Thus it is certainly possible that the spelling of your name reflects how it was heard and interpreted by one particular official at a particular time. SaundersW 08:34, 5 October 2007 (UTC)


 * "Ceasar" used as a name is almost certainly a variant or misspelling of "Caesar", which derives from the Julii Caesares family of Rome, and specifically Gaius Julius Caesar. It's a redirect on wikipedia exactly because it is such a common misspelling (influenced, doutlessly, by the anglicised pronunciation of "sees-er" - the original Latin pronunciation is closer to the German "Kaiser"). FiggyBee 09:32, 5 October 2007 (UTC)
 * And in fact the words Caesar and Kaiser ("Emperor") are cognates etymologically. Your name, therefore, may be taken to mean "emperor". Bessel Dekker 12:57, 5 October 2007 (UTC)


 * I'm not so sure we can rush to conclude that "Ceaser" is a variant of "Caesar". According to records linked from this source, "Ceaser" was a widely held surname in the United Kingdom during the 19th century, with clusters in Aberdeenshire, Hampshire, Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, and on either side of the Solway Firth in Dumfries- and Kirkcudbrightshire and in Cumberland.  It might be, but isn't necessarily a preliterate misspelling of "Caesar".  It could also be an organically English and Scottish surname, possibly derived from the word "cease", meaning "stop".  Or, it might have been derived from the word "seize", but the spelling "ceaser" might have been adopted to avoid negative connotations.  Without more information, we can't be sure.  Incidentally, if you want to avoid redirects to "Caesar" when searching, try putting "ceaser" in quotation marks in the search box.  Marco polo 14:58, 5 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Incidentally, the cognomen "Caesar" did not survive to become a modern surname in Britain, and almost certainly not anywhere else. So it is highly unlikely that the name "Ceaser", even if it originally alluded to "Caesar", indicates descent from the ancient Roman family.  Marco polo 15:17, 5 October 2007 (UTC)


 * A Dictionary of Surnames, OUP, 1988, has nearly 70,000 surnames, but it has neither "Ceaser" nor "Caesar". DuncanHill 15:12, 5 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Does it have Cézar or Cezar? - used in France, Spain and elsewhere. Xn4  23:41, 5 October 2007 (UTC)


 * It does - as variants of "Cesare" - Italian, from the given name Cesare, from the famous Roman family name Caesar. DuncanHill 23:44, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Marco hit a good seam there. Compare Seymour (pronounced 'Seemer'), not a rare surname, of which our article says "It is thought to derive from the contraction of Saint-Maur, a region in northern France". There are a few dozen Seymour descendants of a Norman knight, including the present Duke of Somerset and Marquess of Hertford, but for most of the other Seymours the dab page Seamer gives more likely explanations. Xn4 02:58, 6 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Seymour is interesting. The OUP Dictionary of Surnames gives two derivations, one from St Maur des Fosses in Northern France (or just possibly from St Maur sur Loire in Touraine), and the other from the English place-name Seamer (two places in Yorkshire, and possibly also from Semer, three places in Norfolk, Suffolk, and Yorks), which derives from the Old English sǣ meaning sea or lake, and mere meaning lake or pond. DuncanHill 12:35, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Sentiers battus
Chez soi, comment présenter son plateau de fromage, si on doit faire un choix de, de cinq fromages ?

''Bon, je pense qu'il faut essayer de tenir compte du public auquel on s'adresse. C'est-à-dire que, si vous avez des invités qui connaissent un peu le fromage, on peut aller sur des pâtes un peu plus recherchées. On peut sortir aussi des sentiers battus.''

I found that in a free on-line French listening comprehension exercise and I'm puzzled at the last sentence. The translation given is "well-beaten paths", pretty literal, so I still don't get it. What does that last sentence mean in that context? --Taraborn 08:48, 5 October 2007 (UTC)


 * It means you can go off the beaten track (the usual way), to choose something more special... isn't it?--K.C. Tang 09:28, 5 October 2007 (UTC)


 * KC: yes. Leave the well trodden path and do something original or unusual.SaundersW 10:34, 5 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Oh, ok. Thanks. --Taraborn 21:58, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

common words
are there any common works which you can't play in scrabble because they have >3 zs or >3 Q, or >3J or >3X or >3K or >4 F etc? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.154.232.22 (talk) 14:02, 5 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Pizazz could be a problem. But don't forget the blank tiles... - Eron Talk 14:12, 5 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Pizzazz can also be spelled like that, with four Zs, and a search of my dictionary file turned up knickknack. —Keenan Pepper 17:12, 5 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Hm, I'd hyphenate knick-knack myself. But both that and knickknack redirect to Knick Knack, which is something completely different. I smell a disambiguation page... - Eron Talk 02:48, 6 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Oh, here we go: Bengo's list of interesting scrabble words —Keenan Pepper 17:14, 5 October 2007 (UTC)


 * You can probably find some unscrabble-able words here (plus it's a fun site for reading about weird words). —Preceding unsigned comment added by Pfly (talk • contribs) 03:47, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Of course there's also another class of common words you can't play in Scrabble: those that are over 15 letters long, such as "transcendentally" or "disproportionate". --Anonymous, 06:11 UTC, October 5, 2007.


 * Er, can't you just add letters to an existing word to make a new one? In your examples you could add "entally" to "transcend" or "ate" to "disproportion".--Eriastrum 17:16, 7 October 2007 (UTC)


 * That's how you get words over 8 letters long, but words longer than 15 letters don't fit on the board.  r speer  / ɹəəds ɹ  17:21, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Last name ethnicity
What ethnicity is the last name of Kai Ryssdal? Dismas |(talk) 22:48, 5 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Probably Norwegian - I base this surmise on the only other Ryssdals I could find being Norwegian, and -dal is a fairly common name-ending in Norway (it means "valley"). DuncanHill 22:57, 5 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Kai is also a common Norwegian given name. --Lambiam 23:09, 6 October 2007 (UTC)