Conference thebay::joyoflex

    	Dent-de-lion is almost certainly the derivation. Pissenlit is the
    more usual French word, and means what you think. A French dictionary
    confirms this, and also points out that if you are eating them by the
    roots it implies that you are dead.

    Re .0
    
    <start_rathole>
    
    FWIW
    
    The UK version of the cartoon refers to cats as either the buttercups
    or the couch grass of life.

    <end_rathole>
   

<    	I am collecting the etymology of the word for 'dandelion' in 
<    	as many languages as possible.
 

	Well, the Russian equivalent, according to my Romanov's, is
	(pardon the amateurish tranliteration) _oduvanchik_.
	No hint of lion, or _lyev_.
	No hint of tooth, or _zoob_.
	Sorry... I liked your idea. 

							Dave    

For what it's worth, dandelion is called
"l�vetann" in Norwegian, meaning "lion's tooth".

Henrik

    Italian: dente di leone
    Portuguese: dente-de-le�o
    Dunno the Spanish - I'll look it up at home.
    
    Norwegian (since .0 asked): l�vetann (l�ve:lion, tann:tooth)
    
    This sort of common use of a popular image is not unusual in related
    languages. But even in languages that aren't closely related it
    happens. The Arabic for `pupil' (the spot in your eye) seems to be
    based on the image `little girl', like pupilla, pupille etc. (Maybe
    this has something to do with the fact that you see a reflection
    that looks like a little person in that black spot in someone else's
    eye - tho' I've no idea why it should be a little _girl_.) And French
    seems to have based `copain' (and its pair `compagnon' - but that
    relation hinges on the use of case in the Langue d'Oc, which confuses
    the issue a bit) on a Celtic word formed (supposedly) from `with' and 
    `bread'.
    
    When languages meet (and maybe even when they don't, if you believe in
    The Collective Unconscious) apt images spread.
    
    b

In Hebrew, dandelion is "shen ha-arye" which means of course tooth
of the lion. 

I'm not sure what all of this is supposed to prove, but
another example of what was discussed in the previous reply
is the trans-lingual connection between "what" and "water".

English: what / water
German: wass / wasser
Latin-based: qua / aqua
Hebrew: Ma / mayim

    
    And in Swedish: Maskros, where "mask" means worm and "ros" rose, of
    course. Very poetic, eh?
    
    Bo

For what it's worth, this whole lion business
seems to have started in Greece, where they
called the dandelion "leontodon". In those
days, they actually had lions walking about
in South-Eastern Europe, so lions' teeth were
probably a common sight to botanist pioneers:

- Hey, what should we call this flower?
- Never mind, look behind you!
- Damn!...the lion!

H

    Come to think of it, I was arrested in Le�n. Nothing to do with
    wild flowers tho'.
    
    Re: .1
    
    ... and all these years I'd been thinking the story of Androcles
    and the Lion was far-fetched because a Lion couldn't walk that far.
    Just goes to show.
    
    b

I guess all lions were killed by horses just before the Dutch border...

"Dandelion" in Dutch: Paardebloem. Horse's flower.

Etymology? Well, it's this botanist from a few replies back, shouting :Damn! The
lion!
His colleague answered: "Did you see that! My horse flew 'ere!"
;-)
Arie

	Since you were talking lion's tooth, there's also the
	mouse's ear, in Greek "muosotos", which gives "myosotis".

	The myosotis is also known as "Forget-me-not" in English;
	and "Vergissmeinnicht" in German, and "Ne-m'oubliez-pas" in French.

	Any other translations ?

	roger

	re .6

> is the trans-lingual connection between "what" and "water".

> English: what / water
> German: wass / wasser
> Latin-based: qua / aqua
> Hebrew: Ma / mayim


	Interesting research on phonetic connections (unlike 
	the "dandelion" stuff, which is based on semantics), but ...

	> English: what / water
	> German: wass / wasser

	No surprise here, since "what" and "was" derive from a common 
	pre-Germanic root (something like 'wa' -- saw it some time ago
	in the COD). And "water" and "Wasser" are in the family too. 
	English is descended from old Germanic languages (Angle, Saxon...), 
	and has a very large common base with modern German. Examples of 
	such similarities between the two languages are easy to find.


	> Latin-based: qua / aqua
	Ah, but Latin for "what" is "quid", so the pair would be 
		quid / aqua 
	which is not too significant (many other Latin words contain a q)

	French blows it all with 
		quoi / eau 
	

	> Hebrew: Ma / mayim
	Well ... I won't argue.


	It was a nice try !

	roger			

Re .11 - I can't seem to remember what myosotis is
called in Norwegian...:^) OK, it's called
"forglemmegei" (forglem-meg-ei) - no big surprise.

(But, as Gertrude Stein would have said:
A Myosot is a myosot is a myosotis)

Another more concrete animal image is the
coltsfoot - "hestehov" (horse's hoof) in
Norwegian. 

Henrik