Word of the Day

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Živočichopis

I like the way Czech forms some compounds, and Živočichopis, a book with animal tales (živočich = animal) published in 1962, is certainly one of the words I like. It's similar to lots of words ending in pis (writing), such as dějepis (history; děje = events), zeměpis (geography; země = earth) , přírodopis (natural history, příroda = nature), místopis (local geography; místo = place), lékopis (pharmacopoeia; lék = medicine, medicament). Another such word is cestopis (travel writing, but I've also seen travelogues in English; cesta = trip, travel), which boasts its own section in some Czech bookstores.

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