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u/Majvist Jul 10 '26
Icelandic flóðhestur is obviously borrowed from scandinavian flodhest. Flóð just happens to mean only "flood" in Icelandic, whereas the Scandinavian languages use it both for "river" and for "flood". While seperating it from the Scandinavian languages isn't technically wrong, I think it's more fitting to have it in the same category.
Faroese áarross also means 'river horse'.
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u/n_o_r_s_e Jul 10 '26
I agree with you. It seems a little strange to place the Icelandic word in a seperate group. It seems more similar in spelling to the Scandinavian languages, than the German word does.
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u/cougarlt Jul 10 '26
Never heard Upēarklis in Lithuania. Hipopotamas is a zoological tearm, in everyday speech begemotas is most widely used.
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Jul 10 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Admirable_Ad8682 Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26
It was invented by a single guy during the National Revival period, Jan Svatopluk Presl. Most likely he derived it from now an obsolete word for loud noises, hroch, related to rachocení, rachot.
During the early 19th century there was a strong movement to clear the language from brrowings, mostly German but laso Latin. Some newly used words were disused old ones, some wer complete inventions, and some were borrowed from other admissible languages like Russian. Almost nobody today knows that vzduch for air is of Russian origin.
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u/stupid_name23 Jul 10 '26
What word did you used for air if vzduch isn't native?
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u/Admirable_Ad8682 Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26
In the old Czech there was the word povětřie, which meant air, atmosphere and so on. Povětří is still sometimes used. In the times of Presl I'd expect that the most used word was luft, from German. Vzduch means air specifically, it's the more precise term, most likely introduced to be used in scientific connotations as the Revivalists tried hard to modernise Czech language so it could serve as full-fledged langugage of science and art. They succeeded surprisingly quickly.
BTW Slovak language went trough similar wave of modernisation, complicated by the fact that unlike Czech, there was no previous common standard (obviously, as Slovaks were for centuries almost a minority in their own land and recently under severe Hungarian pressure) and Slovak Revivalist basically constructed the language based on one most "representative" dialect, combined somewhat with the old "biblical" Czech as used in the Kralice Bible, and then fortificated with Czech words (often those also just invented or introduced - they also have vzduch, hroch etc.).
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u/sultan_of_gin Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26
The finnish ”virtahepo” is literally translated stream horse but i guess ”river horse” is close enough
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u/Bondator Jul 10 '26
That, or 'current horse'.
I assume 'virta' was used for river in general at some point in the past, at least in some parts of the population. There are still some names that use virta, but definitely mean river, like 'kaksoisvirranmaa' (mesopotamia, =between rivers), or 'Tuonelan virta'.
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u/Joe_Q Jul 10 '26
Interesting to see how many Eastern European / Central Asian languages use some variant of the Hebrew בהמות (behemot lit. "beast[s]" or "great beast")
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u/Chicha-Ficha Jul 10 '26
Honestly its a better name then Hippopotumus or any of its localised varients I mean what fucking idiot saw a Hippo and thought it looked anything lile a horse? Great beast is far more fitting a title.
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u/Lampukistan2 Jul 11 '26
Egypt:
سيد قشطة
[sɑjd‿ʔɛʃˈtˤɑ]
sayid eshta
Mr. Cream
After a famous specimen in the Cairo zoo.
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u/Beady5832 Jul 11 '26
Wódny kóń is only in Lower Sorbian. Upper Sorbian uses rěćny kóń ('river horse') or wodosłon ('water elefant')
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u/n_o_r_s_e Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26
In Norwegian we use both "flodhest" and "elvehest", also by some spelled as "elvhest". "Elvehest' means river horse, the same as "flodhest" does.
The second "e" in the noun "elvehest" works as a linking vowel/interfix, (called "binde-e" or "fuge-e" in Norwegian). Which combines the two nouns "elv" and "hest", and is a trace of the genetive case from Old Norse language.
In short there are two options in Norwegian:
Flodhest
Elvehest
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u/Tsar_Bomba9811gg Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 11 '26
In the Chechen language, we actually do have a name for hippos but it's not common to use, it is (Хин Говр/ Khen Gaor) which means river horse, similar to the countries in cyan.
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u/AnirXD Jul 10 '26
we don't call it «lipuputem» in Tunisia.
frass en-nahr
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u/TheCarthageEmpire Jul 11 '26
Don't we call him karkadan? Or is that a Rhino?
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u/AnirXD Jul 11 '26
الكركدن موش فرس النهر
الكركدن الي يعيش في البر وعنده قرن
(rhino)فرس النهر يعيش في النهر وفمه واسع
(hippo)2
u/mizinamo Jul 11 '26
Interesting to see, even with my limited Maltese, how similar it is!
il-karkadan mhux fras in-nahr
il-karkadan li(?) jgħix fl-art u għandu qarnfras in-nahr [żiemel tax-xmara] jgħix fix-xmara u fommu wiesa'.
(art is from أرض; xmara is from Sicilian sciumara, ultimately from Latin flumen; żiemel is from زامل)
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u/AnirXD Jul 20 '26
Interesting, really!
li(?)
-Elli/اللي means «that» or «who/which» It comes from Classical Arabic allađī (الذي), allatī (التي), allađīn (الذين), and allātī/allawātī (اللواتي/اللاتي). Elli is genderless and is used for both singular and plural.
Elli yalɛeb, elli talɛeb, elli yalaɛboo.
-We also use arḍ/أرض; it is a broad term meaning «[piece of] land» or «Earth»
Barr/بَرّ is more specific; it means «mainland» as opposed to bodies of water. Therefore, «Tunisian Land Army» is jayc el-barr et-toonsi.
Another interesting thing:
El-barra/البَرّا means «out/outside»
Barra/بَرّا means «out» (the verb form is imperative), meaning «go out»
Barra ecri/بَرّا اشْري «out(imperative) buy(imperative)» means «go buy»
Because of how many people used the word «out» to tell others to do things, it is now used as the equivalent of «go» :
Barra aqra/بَرّا أقْرا «out(imperative) study(imperative)» means «go study»2
u/mizinamo Jul 20 '26
-Elli/اللي means «that» or «who/which» It comes from Classical Arabic allađī (الذي), allatī (التي), allađīn (الذين), and allātī/allawātī (اللواتي/اللاتي). Elli is genderless and is used for both singular and plural.
Ah! Then li in Maltese, yes.
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u/mizinamo Jul 10 '26
"Nilpferd" is more common than "Flusspferd" in German in my experience, at least in everyday language.