Saturday, July 12, 2014

An Unfortunate Last Name I Found in Digging Through Laws of the State of Delaware (1700-1797)

Boaz Manlove.  (I'm guessing it was something Russian like "Manloff.")

4 comments:

  1. Or perhaps he had an ancestor who became notorious...

    There's a joke about Giuseppe, who built the bridge in the town, but they don't call him Giuseppe the builder. It goes on in that vein until Giuseppe says "but you f*** one goat..."

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  2. I think I've seen a family name spelled "Manlowe".

    I wonder how much of a change in spelling/pronunciation could have resulted in "Manlove".

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  3. One of the early Philadelphia censuses lists a guy whose last name would be spelled Fuchs today. But back then, it had a k, not an h.

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  4. Fuchs=German for fox http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Fuchs though not pronounced like the naughty English word.

    The word you want is the French word for seal:
    http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/phoque Not spelled like the word, but yes it sounds just like the English word you are looking for.

    No doubt a great source of amusement for kids taking French in High School or College but especially HS--I can hear the giggles and laughs now and asking the teacher how to pronounce it!

    A good word in one language is sometimes a bad word in the other....

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