• Bennyboybumberchums@lemmy.world
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    19 days ago

    “Why hello there, KERNULL! How goes the war?”

    Apparently the word had quite the journey on its way to American mouths. It seems to have started its life in Italian as “colonnello,” meaning “column of soldiers,” derived from “colonna” meaning “column”. And then the French got a hold of it… I believe I dont need to explain any further why the word became so fucked… lol.

    • scutiger@lemmy.world
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      18 days ago

      The word in French is pronounced exactly the way it’s spelled, with the same linguistic origins as in Italian. It’s really the British that fucked up the pronunciation all on their own.