I don’t know how relevant this is, but in English, the word “cloven” commonly refers to the hooves of large mammals that are split into “toes” for lack of a better word. For example, pigs have cloven hooves, but horses do not.
So it’s a little amusing to me that the English and German ways of referring to a piece of garlic are different…but not really!
I don’t know how relevant this is, but in English, the word “cloven” commonly refers to the hooves of large mammals that are split into “toes” for lack of a better word. For example, pigs have cloven hooves, but horses do not.
So it’s a little amusing to me that the English and German ways of referring to a piece of garlic are different…but not really!
Cloven is the past participle of cleave. The hooves are cloven because they are split in two like deer or pig hooves rather than like a horse’s.