On 7-7-2014 19:23, clipka wrote:
> Am 07.07.2014 18:52, schrieb andrel:
>> Thinking about your question, I now remember the old scheme for our own
>> computers 20-15 years ago. Inspired by Don Knuth they got names that
>> started with 'gn' gnu,gneiss,gnome,gnarl, our boss (who was and is
>> member of the board of http://mnuurwerk.nl/en/ ) obviously got 'gnomon'.
>> We had a little machine that circumvented something (that I pretend to
>> have forgotten), that was named 'gniffel', dutch for snicker.
>> When we had to name the machines at home too, my student (later
>> co-worker and possibly soon my boss) who had 'gnu' at work named his
>> 'wildebeest'. I had already 'takahe' so to keep in the spirit his
>> outside name became 'takkebeest'. (any other dutch people out there that
>> can translate that?)
>
> Not a dutch myself, but the 'nets say that "tak" is a branch, and it
> seems that "takkebeest" means almost anything from "stick insect" to
> creepy critters /on/ branches to creepy critters made /from/ branches to
> cute dogs /carrying/ branches.
>
You might think that, but that would have been 'takkenbeest' (or at 
least when I was young, they tend to change the rules for the 'n' every 
couple of years)
No, in this context 'takke' means more like annoying or horrible. The 
only combination that the translators seem to know is 'takkewijf', 
translated as 'shrew' but that is much too friendly. Besides you 
probably only use it in a context when the animal or woman just did 
something to you. So it is more of an expletive.
...
Just looked it up 'takke' derives from the French 'attaque' (heart 
attack/stroke), so it used to be used as a curse.


-- 
Everytime the IT department forbids something that a researcher deems
necessary for her work there will be another hole in the firewall.

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