The parrot by Izzy Cohen

Pastor Matt wrote:>> Alex's euphewisms (that's a substitute phrase that stinks) remind me of Monty Python's Pet Shop sketch - in which John Cleese returns to a pet shop manned by Michael Palin and complains that his African Grey was only on its perch because it had been nailed there. It had, in fact, joined the choir invisible, met its Maker, passed on, shuffled off this mortal coil; it was, indeed, an ex-parrot. <<

Of course, the standard etymology of parrot is tripe / nonsense. From the Online Etymological Dictionary:
>> parrot c.1525, perhaps from dial. M.Fr. perrot, from var. of Pierre "Peter;" or perhaps a dial. form of perroquet (see parakeet). Replaced earlier popinjay. The verb "repeat without understanding" is first attested 1596. The Ger. naturalist Alexander von Humboldt in S.America 1800 encountered a very old parrot that was the sole speaker of a dead Indian language, the original tribe having gone extinct. <<

Parrot probably has a derivation that is closely related to the verb prate c.1420, from M.Du. praten "to prate" (c.1400), from a W.Gmc. imitative root (cf. M.L.G. praten, M.H.G. braten, Swed. prata "to talk, chatter") ... and the related word prattle = to chatter. Ultimately, it may be a reversal of Greek trop = to turn, return. Yiddish trop is a musical "turning". The parrot returns what you say (without understanding it?). What it says is "tripe" = nonsense.

There may be a semantically similar derivation for the Hebrew word for parrot: TuKi. It seems to be a reversal of KiSHKeSH = to prattle, at a time when the letter shin had a dental D/T-sound. The plural taf-[vav]-kaf-yod-yod-mem TooKiYiM appears in the Old Testament twice: at 2nd Kings 10:22 and as a near repetition at 2nd Chron. 9:21. The customary translation for 2Kings 10:22 is: >> For the king [Solomon] had at sea a navy of Tarshish with the navy of Hiram [king of Lebanon]; once every three years came the navy of Tarshish, bringing gold and silver, ivory and apes, and peacocks. <<

I have also seen this word (TooKiYiM) translated as guinea fowl. I suspect those peacocks/guinea fowl were actually parrots because parrots that could "speak" would fetch a much higher price than edible birds that were worth little more than the local 3oF TaRNaGoL = chicken.

Old joke that I'm sure you've heard before:Delivery Boy: I have a parrot for Mr. Poy-rot. Mr. Poirot: It's pronounced pwa-row. Delivery Boy: Forgive me, sir. I have a pwa-row for Mr. Poy-rot.

>> Of course, what with recent events in my life, this thread seems somewhat odd. The Greeks would say the thread had been measured short by Clotho ... <<

The connection between cloth/fabric and falsehood really is ancient. These concepts are near homonyms in Hebrew:BahD = cloth, fabric, BahDaH = a cognate of myth (a false story). He made it up out of whole cloth. There is not a stitch of truth in it. Hans Christian Anderson used this connection in his "Keiserens nye Klæder" (The Emperor's New Clothes) fairy tale.

>> ... and untimely snipped by Atropos, but that's all Greek to me. Matt <<

Which reminds me of this excerpt from my own "Groundhog Day Party":

>> Atropos: I'm here. In a reversal of Fate, I give everyone a Sport-ing chance.Izzy: Do you cast a die? or just a shadow?Atropos: of nothing. Life hangs by a Hare...Grim Reaper: ... that I cut with my scythe.Tortoise: People say I'm an infernal animal. They confuse me with Tartarus. If I were a sea turtle I'd be a martyr.Oyster: Who's going to Host this party?Izzy: I nominate Walt Quader. Where is that guy?Quader: The phrase 'dead as a doornail' appears as though it might be a stubbornly persistent corruption of this disputed fragment from Shakespeare's otherwise lost notebook of sketches for his (alas, also lost) last comedy, 'The Grim Knocker': ...dead, Isadore? / Nay! I'll... -- Walt

ciao,
Izzy