23 April 2012

"Frolicking" - and "capering" - defined visually


Via BoingBoing.

5 comments:

  1. I used to love playing with our goats when I was a boy. They loved to wrestle with you and try to butt you over. My sisters and I used to laugh just like the girl in the video when they'd jump around like that. Hilarious, and brings back a lot of happy memories - thanks Stan!

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  2. I need to film my spring kids. There's a reason the root of "capering", and "caprice", is the same Latin caprīnus; one that gives us caprine.

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    1. Excellent, Stonemaven. I've amended the post title. Thank you.

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  3. Irrelevant to the video, but seeing Anonymous address you by name (Stan) reminds me of something I've occasionally wondered about.

    Of your blog readers, how many pronounce "Minnesotastan" in their heads as "Minnesota Stan", and how many stress the penultimate syllable, as in "MIN-ne-so-TAS-tan"? Also, do you care?

    I'm in the latter group, though I understand perfectly well that "Minnesota Stan" is the morphology. Stressing the TAST just sounds more natural.

    (Re the video, love it, but have no comment beyond that.)

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    1. Readers from the Midwestern U.S. certainly must see the derivation, but there are visitors to this blog from ~200 countries, and some who have English as a second or third language must be baffled. Sometimes the comments are addressed to "Minne."

      It certainly doesn't matter to me. Interestingly, if you Google it, a prominent usage is among people arguing politics and accusing the state of Minnesota of being run by Communist-leaning leftwing wackos - then they refer to "Minnesotastan" as joining Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan et al as a small central Asian republic. I don't want to be confused with that group.

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