• Quokka@quokk.au
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          4 days ago

          “A frogge biþ a smale beaste wiþ foure leggys”

          I love how Middle English sounds so silly. Is it saying the fish has bright silver scales?

          • Dr. Bob@lemmy.ca
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            4 days ago

            That’s right. A small fish with red fins and bright silver scales. Spelling wasn’t really standardized until the Elizabethan era. People spelled so it could be sounded out.

    • dontsayaword@piefed.social
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      4 days ago

      Good call. According to wiki, the French escale is descended from the Latin scala (ladder)

      EDIT: I misread. The modern French word escale (port of call) descended from the Latin scala (ladder), but the similar Old French word escale/eschale (hard skin covering) came from the Old High German scala (similar meaning). BUT, the Norse skala (measuring device) mentioned in the meme DID descend from the Latin scala (ladder)!

      • ɔiƚoxɘup@infosec.pub
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        4 days ago

        I was curious. Apparently scale as in scale model also comes from the Latin scala. After learning that I went to OED to learn more…

        33 meanings. This is where my journey ends today. 🤣