"The uniform consisted of a dust colored smock that closely matched the local soil. It was thus named after the soil’s color using the Persian word "khaki," meaning ash-colored."
Uh... close, but close only counts in the game of horsehoes and hand grenades.
Check out the similar sounding words to "khaki" in Basque and Gaelic, probably because they share the same root from Proto-Indo-European:
Words can share the same root and have dramatically different meanings. Khak means dirt (and, sometimes, filth) in Persian, but that doesn't mean khaki means filth-colored. On the other hand, it is also significant to note that, for whatever reasons, ashes don't have the same implications of purity and sterilization in many Middle Eastern cultures that they have in some other cultures (this may have to do with differences in how different cultures traditionally extinguished small utility fires on a regular basis, affected by both how fires were used and what was readily available to extinguish them).
Europeans, like many northern peoples, think of ash-colored as some shade of gray, Persians think ashes are khaki.
2 comments:
"The uniform consisted of a dust colored smock that closely matched the local soil. It was thus named after the soil’s color using the Persian word "khaki," meaning ash-colored."
Uh... close, but close only counts in the game of horsehoes and hand grenades.
Check out the similar sounding words to "khaki" in Basque and Gaelic, probably because they share the same root from Proto-Indo-European:
http://www.youswear.com/index.asp?word=shit#.VirK87erTtR
http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/ielex/PokornyMaster-R.html
Then again, the English word "dirt" is derived from the Old Norse word "drit":
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=dirt
Words can share the same root and have dramatically different meanings. Khak means dirt (and, sometimes, filth) in Persian, but that doesn't mean khaki means filth-colored. On the other hand, it is also significant to note that, for whatever reasons, ashes don't have the same implications of purity and sterilization in many Middle Eastern cultures that they have in some other cultures (this may have to do with differences in how different cultures traditionally extinguished small utility fires on a regular basis, affected by both how fires were used and what was readily available to extinguish them).
Europeans, like many northern peoples, think of ash-colored as some shade of gray, Persians think ashes are khaki.
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