Comments on: Puzzling heritage: The verb ‘fart’

By: Monthly etymology gleanings for December 2012 | OUPblog

Monthly etymology gleanings for December 2012 | OUPblog — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 13:31:51 +0000

[...] I received through OUP and privately (by email). As before, the most exciting themes have been smut and spelling. If I wanted to become truly popular, I should have stayed with sex, formerly [...]

By: defending the fart » Ray Bendici

defending the fart » Ray Bendici — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 23:12:57 +0000

[...] it turns out, “fart” is one of the oldest words in the English language, dating to the 14th century, not surprising since the act of farting dates back to when Man first separated himself—and [...]

By: Kim Cornish

Kim Cornish — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 01:36:31 +0000

One reads: “the goddess Freyja, notorious for her amatory escapades, was found in bed with her brother and farted (apparently shocked by the discovery)”. English has an enormous number of words derived from the names of pagan gods. (“Panic” from “Pan”, “Venereal” from “Venus”, “Merchandise” from “Mercury”, “Martial” from “Mars” and so on.) Whether attributed to metathesis or not, could “Freyja” be related to “farting” as “Pan” is to “Panic” or “Mercury” to “Mercurial”?

By: steve miller

steve miller — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 20:44:56 +0000

You kindly answered my query about your views on Nostratic a few months ago. Now I have a different question related to the news business, of which I am a surviving employee, employed in breaking the news.

But whence “breaking news”? It’s not the same as the verb “break the news” and my archival searching shows an early use in Barrons, 1940.

“FROM HERE ON IN the strategy of our canniest political Quarterback, now calling signals for his third “touchdown”, will be to blanket the front pages with “breaking news”, speak of the issues in a sermon-on-the-mount style, and try to ignore his opponent… ”

It occurs to me that it could have to do with breaking into a radio broadcast with pressing news, a la War of the Worlds. That would account for the scare quotes since probably broadcasting jargon was just then entering the language. (Broadcasting itself being a fairly new word in electronics, right?)

A slightly different use is “fast-breaking news,” which I find in the Lima, Oh., News in 1937:

“Ann Sothern plays the part of a sob sister who jilts Gene Raymond at the altar in favor of a fast-breaking news story.”

Similarly, “broke the story”

“Attorney Stolen “broke the story” this morning.” (Wisconsin State Journal 10/5/1921)

Again with the scare quotes – but this one would seem not to stem from broadcasting. Actually it may not be the same derivation as a reporter who “broke the story.”

It could be that there is a “broke the story” that means “broke the news” and another that is related to the activity of newshounds such as myself.

I don’t have an OED but from what I’ve read elsewhere (http://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2011/09/breaking-news.html) the OED is not so great on breaking the news, citing “I have some news to break” from 1840.

I found a similar use 4 decades earlier: “We are much inclined to hope that a recontre has taken place, and that the French journals have taken this way of breaking disastrous news to the public.” (Morning Post Gazetteer – Saturday, August 11, 1798 – London, Middlesex)

There would seem to be a lot of shaded meanings here and I’d love it if you could break new ground on t he topic.

Thanks,

Steve

By: OUPblog » Blog Archive » (Bi)Monthly Etymology Gleanings for July-August 2012

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 12:30:44 +0000

[...] Farting and participles (not to be confused with cabbages and kings). Summer is supposed to be a dead season, but I cannot complain: many people have kindly offered their comments and sent questions. Of the topics discussed in July and August, flatulence turned out to be the greatest hit. I have nothing to add to the comments on fart. Apparently, next to the election campaign, the problem of comparable interest was breaking wind in Indo-European. The uneasy relations between German farzen and furzen have been clarified to everybody’s satisfaction, and interesting parallels from Greek and Slavic adduced. Rasmus Rask and Jacob Grimm might have been embarrassed if they had discovered how fart and its cognates are being used to illustrate their law. [...]

By: Demetrius

Demetrius — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 10:45:03 +0000

The Ancient Greek πέρδομαι and βδέω in exactly the same meaning will add even more credibility to the article. As students of the classical philology some 30 years ago we were amazed to discover that the Greeks called these activities with almost the same words as we do now (perdet’ and bzdet’).

By: Teddy Pescadero

Teddy Pescadero — Sat, 18 Aug 2012 09:01:31 +0000

I cannot believe that there is so much history just behind a word. And the fact that the word is almost always used in contemporary use, it’s a good idea to know its origin.

By: OUPblog » Blog Archive » I been, I seen, I done

OUPblog » Blog Archive » I been, I seen, I done — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 12:30:27 +0000

[...] the meaning of the terms weak and strong, as applied to verbs, are kindly requested to read the post for July 25, where this theme is developed in connection with the etymology of fart.) It could therefore be [...]

By: Egypt Steve

Egypt Steve — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 18:31:45 +0000

How could you miss Chaucer in the “Summoner’s Tale”:

“A!” thoghte this frere, “That shal go with me!”
And doun his hand he launcheth to the clifte,
In hope for to fynde there a yifte.
And whan this sike man felte this frere
Aboute his tuwel grope there and heere,
Amydde his hand he leet the frere a fart,
Ther nys no capul, drawynge in a cart,
That myghte have lete a fart of swich a soun.
The frere up stirte as dooth a wood leoun, -
“A! false cherl,” quod he, “for Goddes bones!
This hastow for despit doon for the nones.
Thou shalt abye this fart, if that I may!

Years ago during my student years in Germany, I used to always get a juvenile laugh or two out if the similar sound of German “Fahrt” “trip” with English “fart.” For example: when renting a car, the agent might wish you “Gute Fahrt”! Which I always thought was very kind. When driving the car out of the garage, you look for the “Ausfahrt,” which makes sense, but driving back in, you look for the “Einfahrt,” which is difficult to picture … Of course, you and your friends may organize a “Gruppenfahrt,” or go clear around the city with a “Stadtrundfahrt.”

By: Joe

Joe — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 13:36:10 +0000

If you need a source for “farzen”: “Es farzt die Hexe, es stinkt der Bock.” – Goethe, “Faust” (“Walpurgisnacht”). Remants of older vowel variants can be found in German dialects to this day.

By: Mikael

Mikael — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 16:51:23 +0000

mcravener; “Fisa” is not the only Swedish word for this, I would say that “fjärta” (cognate to “fart”?) is almost as common. The third option “prutta” is a bit more childish and perhaps onomatopoetic.

By: Alex B.

Alex B. — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 20:01:21 +0000

In modern standard German the word is “furzen”. However, Kluge lists “farzen” and marks it as Vsw per. vulg. arch. (14. Jh.), which means ” a weak verb” (Vsw – schwaches Verb), dialectal (?) (per. = peripherer Wortschatz) , archaic (arch.= archaisch).

By: Alice

Alice — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 16:19:02 +0000

Thank you to all our eagle-eyed commenters. I put in a special call to Anatoly (away on a mysterious vacation) and got the following response:

“I have a rather small German dictionary here, which gives only FURZEN, but the etymological dictionary lists both FARZEN and FURZEN. I wrote: “German has retained farzen” (which is correct), but perhaps you may add in parantheses, after what is written there (now a weak verb, though furzen is the most common form). I never use either when I speak German (obviously), so a German correspondent should be trusted.

“Scatalogical words hold a strange attraction. I am sorry to say that SH*T is also a verb of respectable origin. Should I write about it in September?”

I will amend the blog post as suggested above. Do we have any German etymologists reading who can enlighten us further on the various forms?

- Blog Editor Alice (who studied French so relies on other people’s knowledge of German)

By: mcravener

mcravener — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 13:55:26 +0000

Interesting entymology. In modern Swedish the verb “fisa” is the only word used for breaking wind. A modifier is when necessary added to make it a loud one (noun) “brakfis”.

By: Karin Schelbert

Karin Schelbert — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 07:00:45 +0000

I second Yecid Villa. In modern German we say ‘furzen’ not ‘farzen’.
It’s a very intresting article!

By: Benjamin S.

Benjamin S. — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 23:41:31 +0000

re: scatological words and embarassment: I once gave an exam and the correction answer to the question on Grimm’s Law was “fart”. Only one student got that question right, largely because the others couldn’t believe that the right answer could be something as crass as “fart”.

But, as Alex B. suggests, the reason I chose this was really because this is a fairly nice and straightforward example of Grimm’s Law.

By: Alex B.

Alex B. — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 15:32:01 +0000

I’ve always thought of “fart” as a really good example to explain Grimm’s law, esp. with Russian-speaking students (p=>f, d=>t).

By: Yecid Villa

Yecid Villa — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 15:15:36 +0000

The modern german verb is furzen (weak). The Duden says: Middle High German = verzen. Old High German = ferzan. Farzen doesn’t sound like a german verb.(ich farze?)

By: Yewtree

Yewtree — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 13:44:40 +0000

Fascinating article!

What about the line in the Middle English song, “Sumer is icumen in”?

Bulluc sterteþ, bucke uerteþ,
Murie sing cuccu!