Pineapples, butterflies, and etymology

Posted on June 28, 2014 | 1 Comment

The words for ‘pineapple’ and ‘butterfly’ have a little thing in common in English – and a striking difference in other languages. Read about it in my latest article for TheWeek.com:

The curious linguistic history of pineapples and butterflies

 

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One response to “Pineapples, butterflies, and etymology”

  1. Theo's avatar Theo | June 28, 2014 at 11:39 pm | Reply

    Can you tell us anything about the words for “pineapple” in, say, American dialects? Your article gives the (I’m sure unintended) impression that “people” = Europeans — “everyone” uses the same word for “pineapple” because it’s new, whereas butterflies have been around “since before there were even people”.

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