On Apr 24, 2005, at 19:44, Patrick McManus wrote:
> I also notice that in danish 'marsvin' is a guinea pig which may be
> close??patrick
Marsvin is strangely enough Latin "mare" + German "schwein", as in
"little pig from the sea."
As for the Gaelic:
>
> "MART, n. m. a cow, cow to kill. Early Irish mart, a beef. Scottish
> mart,
> a cow or ox killed for winter provisions."
>
Clearly all those Scottish immigrants brought it to America, where it
was extended to cover provisions for all seasons and resurfaced in
Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Stein Mart....
--Knut (hey, is that the "K" in K-Mart?)
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