From: Christophe Grandsire (christophe.grandsire@free.fr)
Date: Tue Apr 29 2003 - 04:19:25 EST
En réponse à Adam Walker :
>What a bizzarre semantic field! You wouldn't happen
>to know the etymology would you?
The Online Hachette Encyclopédie says that it comes actually from the
phrase "mords pion": "bite pawn" ("pion" used to be a common French word
for "infantryman", hence its use in chess), with "bite" in the imperative.
The phrase would have come to be used as a single word. I find it rather
plausible, since phrases transformed into single words are common in French
(with the same structure, I can think of "porte-plume": "penholder", which
is transparently "porte plume": "hold feather"). The different uses become
clear when you think of different ways to take "pion" metaphorically ;))) .
Christophe Grandsire.
http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr
You need a straight mind to invent a twisted conlang.
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