That’s why he said “the shower-drain of languages”. It’s how English got so rich, by accepting words from wherever into it. It’s like a petri-dish that everyone spits into: wonderfully varied and complex, but not very sanitary.
I remember reading something about when Asterix (a French comic that loves puns) was translated into English, they had to find equivalent puns since most don’t translate. “Fortunately, English is arguably the lexicon for puns.” Being a hodgepodge of other languages is a big part of that.
That’s why he said “the shower-drain of languages”. It’s how English got so rich, by accepting words from wherever into it. It’s like a petri-dish that everyone spits into: wonderfully varied and complex, but not very sanitary.
Edit: dunno why I wrote shower curtain
I remember reading something about when Asterix (a French comic that loves puns) was translated into English, they had to find equivalent puns since most don’t translate. “Fortunately, English is arguably the lexicon for puns.” Being a hodgepodge of other languages is a big part of that.