a-book-of-creatures: “allthingslinguistic: ““There’s a theory that early Europeans started saying “brown one” or “honey-eater” instead of “bear” to avoid summoning them, and similarly my friend has started calling Alexa “the faceless woman” because...

a-book-of-creatures:

allthingslinguistic:

There’s a theory that early Europeans started saying “brown one” or “honey-eater” instead of “bear” to avoid summoning them, and similarly my friend has started calling Alexa “the faceless woman” because saying her true name awakens her from her slumber

English has an avoidance register used in the presence of certain respected animals, which sounds fancy until you realize it’s spelling out w-a-l-k and t-r-e-a-t in front of the dog.

Mx. Leah Velleman on twitter

Icelandic folklore requires you avoid saying the names of evil whales, otherwise you’ll draw their attention.

Reblogged 2 weeks ago from rockboci (Originally from allthingslinguistic)
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Source: allthingslinguistic
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