26 March 2015

square is nelki (revisited)

nelki = square (shape) (noun) (some things Google found for "nelki": a uncommon term; an unusual last name; a rare first name; user names; means cloves in Silesian which is language of Poland or a dialect of Polish; similar nelk means cloves in Estonian; Nelki's Place is a hotel in Lagos, Nigeria)

Word derivation for "square" :
Basque = lauki, Finnish = neliö
Miresua = nelki

My previous Miresua word for square was nölai.

The Basque word lauki does mean square, but translates to quadrilateral, 4-sided polygon. I found another word in Basque, karratu, that specifically means square. Although I chose to use the Basque word lauki again because, like the Finnish word, neliö, it's derived from its language's word for four. (Four in Basque is lau, four in Finnish is neljä.) I made my new Miresua word for square resemble the Miresua word for four, nelu.

The word square doesn't appear in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. But square (and squares) appears numerous times in Through the Looking-glass.
For some minutes Alice stood without speaking, looking out in all directions over the country -- and a most curious country it was. There were a number of tiny little brooks running straight across it from side to side, and the ground between was divided up into squares by a number of little green hedges, that reached from brook to brook.

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