Alternative meaning of Mariposa

[Neil Jones]

On Thursday 11 April 2002 06:29 pm, MexicoDoug at aol.com wrote:
> Dear P.s,
>
> If this is your way to come in contact with nature, I see nothing 'mental'
> about it, as suggested, and the only pervert so far has been Neil, in the
> sense that he seems to assign "Mariposa" meanings it doesn't have (In all
> fairness, it was reputed to have this perverted meaning by a recent book
> which may or may not be Neil's source). 

Well I seem to recall I have encountered that usage of "Mariposa" on several 
occasions on the various lists. Before using the pun I checked google where 
there are a multitude of references using the same meaning. (It isn't 
homophobia on my part. As far as I am concerned some men have been like this 
since we first evolved in Africa. It is entirely their affair who they fall 
in love with. I like women myself.) 

This is not to say that you are wrong.  I have encountered this same thing 
home here. I am Welsh. Here in Wales we have our own language. It is totally
different to English and its closest  living relative is Breton in France. It 
is more distantly related to the 3 Gaelic languages.

In addition to this many people speak English in a very peculiar way using  
loan words, literal translations and odd constructions. 
However just this morning I was looking  at a rerun of an old Sci-fi show 
from the 70's Irritatingly being about Wales It had to be set down a coal 
mine! :-). But the scriptwriters were obviously English in that they used a 
number of well known mythical dialect constructions which we do not use. This 
happens all the time and there are plenty of real dialect features they could 
use.

All joking aside it  I always like to know some of the language of a country 
I am visiting and it is useful to know if a word  I might use does have an 
alternative meaning that might be rude.  
For example Higgins and Riley's now superseded standard work on European 
Butterflies gives Le Grand Porte-queue for the Swallowtail Papilio machaon.
I have always been a little nervous of using this name, since whilst "queue" 
litterally means "tail", it has another crude slang meaning which you can 
probably all guess.

> And the fact that some Lepsters
> are patrolling the list for females simply indicates they are in need of
> something they may not get enough of...

I don't think any of us needs to patrol for females on the list. It was just 
an amusing image for some  or an opportunity for a bilingual pun in my case.

--
Neil Jones- Neil at nwjones.demon.co.uk http://www.butterflyguy.com/
NOTE NEW WEB ADDRESS
"At some point I had to stand up and be counted. Who speaks for the
butterflies?" Andrew Lees - The quotation on his memorial at Crymlyn Bog
National Nature Reserve

 
 ------------------------------------------------------------ 

   For subscription and related information about LEPS-L visit:

   http://www.peabody.yale.edu/other/lepsl