@BrianBinh I love this etymology because it implies that at some point, someone from England met someone from Spain and all they could think was "this motherfucker is too Spanish."
@BrianBinh is that connected to the Dutch word -aard, which means 'nature' or 'essence'? We also use that as a suffix. Dronkaard is someone who is drinking all the time. Luiaard is someone who is lazy by nature.
@miss_s_b Somewhat surprised I had to scroll down all the way to your toot to find a reference to Pratchett. If I scrolled down much further I might have found myself at bottom. @tzarfenix@BrianBinh
@bluedragon It's actually true! Adding -ard to words in Middle English was equivalent to slang today adding -ass. A drunkard was a drunkass motherfucker. A dullard was a dullass motherfucker. A bollard was a bole (tree trunk)-ass thing.
@flamepanther@feonixrift@BrianBinh@bluedragon sadly it's not a liz + -ard. It came into english from old french "lesard", ,which came from the latin "lacertus" through the anglo-normon "lusard"
@BrianBinh@bluedragon
OED suggests it's a slightly different derivation, more an emphasis (ie 'really drunk', 'really wise') but sometimes with negative overtones. Fun though!
@AlisonW@BrianBinh@bluedragon agreed, while -ard in Middle English generally creates mildly pejorative agent nouns, it’s parallel in use to Dutch -aard, which can also just create words meaning “__-like person/thing” and in at least some cases comes from Proto-Germanic *ardiz meaning “inner nature, character”.
@avuko@AlisonW@BrianBinh@bluedragon in some cases in English and Dutch it might also be from Proto-Germanic *harduz “hard”, which more originally meant also “strong”, cognate with Ancient Greek “kratos” meaning “power”, you see something like this in e.g. the English term “blowhard” for someone who talks too loud and too frequently. That’s also the source of the -ard/-aard/-art in many Western European boy names like “Leonard” = lit. ‘as hard (or strong) as a lion’
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