Silver Tongue
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 years ago from rockboci (Originally from allthingslinguistic)
110,701 notes
  1. strongholdinthedark reblogged this from humans-are-seriously-weird
  2. monsterouscookie reblogged this from beware-the-werenerd
  3. 7-11thuniverse reblogged this from mayorkoopbob
  4. leopardlover reblogged this from natroze
  5. thousandyearphantombunker reblogged this from thousandyearphantombunker
  6. theanonymousbooks reblogged this from beware-the-werenerd
  7. beware-the-werenerd reblogged this from isis-
  8. isis- reblogged this from megoosa
  9. megoosa reblogged this from lowcalcalzones
  10. phynoma reblogged this from stylishanachronism and added:
    Reblog for murder whales
  11. iamapotatobag reblogged this from stylishanachronism
  12. stylishanachronism reblogged this from notaboyscout
  13. notaboyscout reblogged this from ophidiae
  14. morriganwarrior reblogged this from the-qalankhais-sweetheart and added:
    Many cultures had this regarding Death. In ancient Greece, as I recall, people used alternative names for the God of...
  15. mossself reblogged this from dgcatanisiri
  16. stephanemiroux reblogged this from the-qalankhais-sweetheart
  17. birdandcatlover reblogged this from the-qalankhais-sweetheart
  18. the-qalankhais-sweetheart reblogged this from dgcatanisiri
  19. valen-but-not-tine reblogged this from dgcatanisiri
  20. dgcatanisiri reblogged this from thebisfor
  21. ophidiae reblogged this from rivendellrose
  22. allthingslinguistic posted this