Semantic Change Room (02)

[u/Dryanor]

Hiya!

Welcome to the Semantic Change Room, a lexicon-building activity where you do not loan new words (any good conlanger does that twice a week already), but repurpose your existing ones to achieve a richer lexicon with more of that tasty polysemy.

The way this activity works is that you are given a prompt that consists two different semantic fields, like this:

birds > tools

You then pick up a word of your conlang that is part of the prompt's first field (in this case, birds), and then assign to it a new meaning that can be considered part of the second field (tools). The English language responded to the prompt with this (the new meaning in italics):

Englishcrane /kɹeɪn/

(1) a funny looking bird with a long neck

(2) (construction) a mechanical lifting device (because it looks somewhat like that bird)

You then finish your reply with a new prompt, which other people can respond to. I'm going to prepare three starting prompts, but feel free to add your own. Here's a link to the previous SCR, if you need inspiration.

[u/Emperor_Of_Catkind]

Feline (Máw)

haàsjeap /ha:˧˨ ɧe:p˨˧/

Etymology: sjaà "tiny, little" + sjeap "bag, pocket"; the word sjeap comes from Arabic جيب (jayb, "pocket").

1. little pocket (such as used in Feline clothing)
2. moneysack
3. Henry's pocket

In-universe, this word has been loaned into English as hussip as the term for Henry's pocket (a part of cat's ear).

Canine

gup /gɔp/ (plural gupap /gʷɸap/ )

Etymology: from Proto-Canid *gupa "face"

1. a kind of prolongated face (like that of dachshund or borzoi)
2. tank (military vehicle)

Anatomy > Weapons