"capon"
Today, my students wanted to know the word for a castrated pig. Mind you, it took about half an hour to get to the point where I understood that they wanted to know the word for a castrated pig. Fortunately, Porye is a decent artist and he also had a Thai-English dictionary; a few diagrams later and some mangled attempts at pronouncing the word "testicles," I was pretty sure I got it. Turns out, not only is this a crucial issue for Hmong people when they buy pork, but there actually is a word for castrated pig. It was another enlightening day for us all.
posted by Anne | 12:35 PM
4 Comments:
May I be naive and ask, "How did you find the word?"
and may i be so bold as to ask, "what is the word?"
One student was able to find the desired Thai word in his dictionary, and I then looked at the English translation and upon consulting my third dictionary, found the definition.
However, now I'm not so sure: my grandpa-in-law is a farmer and told Mark on the phone last night that "capon" is a castrated CHICKEN, not pig.
I'm sure I could get to the bottom of all this if I really wanted. I'm thinking I don't really want to.
Your grand-pa in law is right, I believe. The dictionary I have defines "capon" as a castrated rooster. So -- what then --- is a castrated pig???????
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