Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2018 July 21

= July 21 =

The mountain and lake
If a mountain meet lake, they form a mountlake; If Cornwall meet a flake, they form a cornflake. But why isn't possible to make another word of two terms with sense, if national police of Switzerland find a new method to discover new word with grass-energy machine? I don't understand, this is a very strange fact. And if Swiss authorities didn't find this method, how we can form similar thing? We have to thanksgive the swiss peoples! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.50.67.112 (talk) 11:04, 21 July 2018 (UTC)
 * No, "mountlake" is not an English word. "Cornflake(s)" is a product name for the breakfast cereal Corn flakes sold by Kellogg's. It has no connection with the English place name Cornwall in which the Corn- originates from the Brythonic tribe, the Cornovii ("peninsula people"). The article Compound (linguistics) describes the joining of two or more words to make one longer word. Two English examples are foot+path-->footpath and black+bird-->blackbird. A majority of Swiss speak German language where compund words abound such as Kraft 'power' + fahren/fahr 'drive' + Zeug 'machinery'-->Kraftfahrzeug 'automobile'. DroneB (talk) 12:29, 21 July 2018 (UTC)


 * There is a Mountlake Terrace, Washington, so "mountlake" is not unknown in English, but it's not all that common either. "Corn" and "Cornwall" have an etymological connection, but they parted ways a long time ago. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 12:33, 21 July 2018 (UTC)
 * No, no. A proper name "Mountlake" in USA does not qualify as an English Vocabulary word. Your claims lack support by any general or etymological dictionary. DroneB (talk) 12:03, 22 July 2018 (UTC)
 * What claim? ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 12:53, 22 July 2018 (UTC)
 * Both of your sentences. DroneB (talk) 13:40, 22 July 2018 (UTC)
 * Maybe you missed the EO references about "corn". As to Mountlake Terrace, the article says "They named their development "Mountlake Terrace" because from some parts of the property they could see both Mount Rainier and Lake Washington, and the old runway looked a little like a terrace." Whether that has anything to do with the OP's use of "mountlake" (which I never heard of until the OP brought it up), I couldn't say. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 14:24, 22 July 2018 (UTC)
 * Probably you guessed that the speculated (=uncertain) origin of the Celtic Cornovii tribe name was the modern word "corn" which means a Cereal grain to the British and Maize to you. In that guess you are unsupported by etymologists who inform that Celtic kernou "horn," hence "headland," has nothing to do with modern corn, and never had. See Cornovii (Cornwall). When you cannot say anything about the OP's use of "a mountlake" (not capitalized so not a proper noun), it would be better that you didn't. DroneB (talk) 17:31, 22 July 2018 (UTC)
 * "Horn" and "corn" come from the same root. As to "mountlake", feel free to look for a definition of it and report back to us. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 17:40, 22 July 2018 (UTC)
 * Still No. Saying that corn and horn rhyme is not providing a linguistic root of any help to the OP. A person upset at failing to find a non-existing word "mountlake" in any English dictionary but unable to shut up about it might keep wasting readers' time with this American placename. This pointless thread deserves a hat. DroneB (talk) 21:54, 22 July 2018 (UTC)
 * Done. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 22:12, 22 July 2018 (UTC)
 * It's nothing to do with rhyming. horn, corn and kernel all have the same root. If you read the links I provided, you'll see that. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 08:11, 23 July 2018 (UTC)


 * Your question is difficult to understand. The parts I think I understand are wrong. You seem to be posting from Italy. If you would like, you could try asking your question in Italian here and we could do our best to translate. There is also an Italian language equivalent to this page located here. It seems to be fairly popular. Matt Deres (talk) 03:35, 22 July 2018 (UTC)


 * English is not like German, where you can more or less coin new words at will.  For example, there is an area of north London known as Woodberry Down.   "Woodberry" does not feature in the dictionary, not even as a hyphenated compound. 86.133.26.146 (talk) 10:34, 23 July 2018 (UTC)
 * Just to show how misleading these perceived connections can be, the "berry" in "Woodberry" refers to a "fortified manor house" .  It is cognate with "borough". 86.133.26.146 (talk) 11:28, 23 July 2018 (UTC)
 * As with Salisbury, for example. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 11:45, 23 July 2018 (UTC)
 * And Woodbury Common Premium Outlets? The Bizarro World version is Woodexcavate Rare Cheap Inlets. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 20:40, 23 July 2018 (UTC)