"broască țestoasă"
Translation:turtle
17 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
3090
In German, too. It's "Schildkröte". :) Looks like some Germanic languages (not English, though ^^) and Romanian have that in common.
680
Ooh, I didn’t know that and I’m studying Dutch. I knew that schild means shield, but didn’t know that pad means frog. Thank you.
testoasa comes from Latin " testudo" meaning turtle and turtle shell. It was also the name of the famous Roman military formation where all the legionaries put their shields on their heads ( except those in front and on the sides) to protect themselves from enemy arrows etc. In French it is called LA TORTUE, Spanish Tortuga. If I remember well, in English you also have the term " Tortoise" ? Don't you use it anymore ? Broasca must be Slavish ?
680
I’m Serbian and I couldn’t think of anything Slavic that sounds like “broasca”. According to Wiktionary it comes from Vulgar Latin “brosca” which in turn comes from Ancient Greek “βρόταχος”, which means frog.
Edit: Oh, as for “turtle”, it’s much more common that “tortoise” in American English. See here.
981
In Russian it's 'черепаха' (cherepaha) pronounced as ch(j)e-r(j)e-pa-ha, where 'cherep' means 'skull'.