Wednesday 18 June 2008

Watch what you say

Rain last night, so no trapping. Instead here's a language lesson and another competition. Chatting with Cheryl about 'psyche' the dual classical Greek word for 'spirit/soul' and 'butterfly' (see Comment on immediately previous post) got me thinking about Indonesian. The Indonesia for butterfly is kupu-kupu. The Indonesian for moth is kupu-kupu malam. But kupu-kupu malam literally means 'butterfly of the night' and is also slang for prostitute. I know this because I once collected moths in Sulawesi (formerly Celebes). Oh, how knowledge-packed blogging can be. Now the competition: look at the wing patterns of this moth (currently a nightly visitor in Leeds) and guess its name. I'll help with the clue that it's called the Blank-and-Blank and the two Blanks rhyme.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

How about "nail and pail" for the wing pattern?

Busy bee

Unknown said...

Wings and Things, Martin??
Audrey

Oliver Wainwright said...

blot and dot?
dash and splash?
pole and hole(s)...?

gosh, this is veritably quizzy!

Sola said...

Well, I see you've already given teh answer; i found you because the name of this moth is also the name of my shop, and he is my very favorite moth, to boot. What a lovely picture of him!

MartinWainwright said...

Hi Sola - thanks v much for comment and I recommend all readers to your website - http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5410732

In fact it's my wife's birthday soon, so I shall probe mail order...