Drakes and Coots and Farbackistan

[Fluks, H.W.]

Don:

> For our non-fluent-in-English
> members, "drake" is a male duck or sometimes just a duck and a word
> slightly more commonly used in England than in America.

Interesting! It never occurred to me that "Drake" was an actual English
word. The Dutch translation of Ludwig Von Drake is Otto van Drakestein.
"Otto" sounds a bit German alright, but "Drakestein" is just inspired by the
castle where our queen lived before she became our queen. It means something
like "Dragon castle". Probably the original translator didn't know anything
about drakes either.

I had a similar experience with the names Gander and Coot: only years after
I saw these English names, I realised what their meaning was.

Funny: the Dutch translations of most Disney character names don't refer to
animals at all: Duck (no meaning), Geluk (luck), Prul (piece of garbage,
this is Coot's name).

Kjell:

> BTW, the name "Långtbortistan" (Farawaystan) is sometimes 
> used in Sweden
> when you refer to an indefinite distant locality.

Same in Holland: "Verweggistan" has become a common expression. This has
been discussed in articles and books about modern Dutch language, but I
think no-one laid the link with Disney comics, let alone Barks.
Maybe someone can prove, someday, that the Barks stories *are* the origin of
the word "Verweggistan".

--Harry.