--- Lalith Vipulananthan wrote: <snip> > That would be 'pariah' dude! I apologise for being a > spelling pedant but I > do this all the time on the Culture List (not so > much recently), which makes > it all the funnier when I make a spelling mistake > myself. > > Interesting. Merriam-Webster's site claims that > 'pariah' originates from > Tamil. > > 'paraiyan', literally, drummer <snip> > > Aha! > > --------------------------- > there is a tribe of drummers in Tamil Nadu and > Kerala called paraiyan, who > were classified vis-�-vis the caste system as > "untouchables"-their name has > become generalized for all social outcastes; it > comes from the Tamil word > parai 'drum', also 'to tell'; drumming and > communication go together in > ancient cultures. The great sage tiruvaLLuvar, the > author of the highly > esteemed poetic classic tirukkuraL, was of this > tribe. > ---------------------------- > > <<http://www.penkatali.org/tamilwords.html>> > Fun site - and I find etymology fascinating. I think that's one of the reasons I enjoyed Tolkien so much - I named two of my cats (alas, gone to that great prowling ground in the sky) using 'Elvish' words or word-roots. (Turned out that someone else in Baton Rouge had also named their cat 'Mithril!')
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