Word of the Day

Monday, September 5, 2016

Skyscrapers

There are languages with skyscrapers: Portuguese arranha-céu(s), Spanish rascacielos, Italian grattacielo, French gratte-ciel, Bulgarian небостъргач (nebostrugach), Russian небоскрёб (neboskryob), Croatian neboder, Slovenian nebotičnik; others have cloudscrapers: Czech/Slovak mrakodrap, Macedonian oблакодер (oblakoder), German Wolkenkratzer, Dutch wolkenkrabber, Romanian zgârie-nori, Finnish pilvenpiirtäjä. Danish skyskraber and Swedish skykrappa look very much like skycrapers, but sky in these languages means cloud, not sky. Here for the etymology of the word sky in English.

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