Quote:
Originally Posted by kindlekitten
think back to nursery songs... (and I am going to butcher this, sorry)
Frère Jacques, Frère Jacques, dormez-vous? dormez-vous?
brother john are you sleeping?
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i added my own damned accents (and a few other missing letters)
.
anyway, yes, that's close. actually "dormouse" sounds really close to "dormeuse" which means a sleeper (much like "liseuse" means reader
). and actually i just decided to check if real dormice really do sleep a lot, and lo (thank you wikipedia) :
Quote:
One of the most notable characteristics of those dormice that live in temperate zones is hibernation. Dormice can hibernate six months out of the year, or even longer if the weather remains sufficiently cool, sometimes waking for brief periods to eat food they had previously stored nearby. During the summer, they accumulate fat in their bodies, to nourish them through the hibernation period
It is from this trait that they got their name, which comes from Anglo-Norman dormeus, which means "sleepy (one)"; the word was later altered by folk etymology to resemble the word "mouse". The sleepy behaviour of the Dormouse character in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland also attests to this trait.
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anyway, sorry for the digression. parentheses closed now.
