Word of the Day

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Babybox

A baby hatch is known in the Czech Republic as babybox. This linguist seems to be under the impression that babybox in this context is actually used in English (Jak je možné, že babybox se objevuje poprvé až v roce 2005?! (Mimochodem, zajímalo by mě, jak by si jazykoví puristi s tímto slovem poradili – vytvořit nějaký český překlad nebo používat toto nečeské, tedy „nepatřičné“ slovo?)(How is it possible that baby box only surfaced in the year 2005?! By the way, I wonder how language purists would deal with this word - to come up with some Czech translation or to use this non-Czech, in other words, improper word?) But, as it turns out, babybox, even though it is made up of two English words, is a pseudo-anglicism. It must be a European concoction, since in Norwegian it is also known as baby box, spelled babyboks, as can be seen in the Wikipedia article to which I linked.

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