egafd.com

At last. I knew that beutelwolf would eventually come and answer my question.

marcel_43 wrote:

>
> Bad Samaritan wrote:
>
> > corona wrote:
> >
> > > The audio is from 'Spanner Teeny 9' I'm not too sure what
> 'Spanner' means from a German perspective. Spanner in the UK is
> a tool for metal nuts / bolts.
> >
> > !happy! Spanner means "one who stretches".
>
> In this context 'Spanner' means 'voyeur'.
>

A more complex etymological task. What's your opinion, jj?

In this context 'Spanner' means 'voyeur'.

Bad Samaritan wrote:
> A more complex etymological task. What's your opinion, jj?

I'm not competent to hold one; my knowledge of idiomatic German
is slightly smaller than the radius of a proton.
However, Steve Holmes did a couple of titles for XXL, entitled 'der
Spanner', which had a patently voyeuristic theme. How one might
get from the original to the derived meaning is one of the reasons
why etymology is so fascinating and endlessly mystifying [at least,
to me].
Here's another; English 'cat' originally meant 'puppy'- catulus,
'small dog'... no wonder specimens of Felis domesticus always
look so annoyed : -))
Roman cats must have been doubly so.....

jj wrote:

> Here's another; English 'cat' originally meant 'puppy'-
> catulus,
> 'small dog'... no wonder specimens of Felis domesticus
> always
> look so annoyed : -))
> Roman cats must have been doubly so.....
>

It is Latin cattus, which exactly means cat and derives from the languages of North Africa.

I can only tell you what I was always taught.
Is 'cattus' Late Latin?

Nope. You're the victim of one of the most prominent aspects of folk etymology: Take two opposing concepts and link them in an etymological context.

Cattus possibly comes from Numidian via Punic.

That's why I so hate the 'humane' studies sometimes- all that
hearsay and dishonesty; give me 'proper' science any day, where
most of the villains are upfront about their lack of rigour [or
poor at hiding it] : -)

For now, I'll go back to watching the football..... more my
intellectual level.

jj wrote:

> That's why I so hate the 'humane' studies sometimes- all that
> hearsay and dishonesty;
>

No complaints. You're the one who bought it. !happy!

... yes, sometimes I'm a trusting soul rather than the hard-bitten
cynic I usually appear to be.
And it was such a nice story I rather hoped it was true.

'Spanner' means 'voyeur'
?Spanner? means ?one who stretches?

Which is it to be?
Maybe ?voyeur? is the way to go.

While pondering the above, the title for a film popped into my mind:
?Legs Wide Closed?

It has a certain ?Stanley Kubrick? ring to it.