Wurzelausix

[pne]

I just realised the pun behind the name Wurzelausix (the name of the pretend nanny in the German translation of Asterix and Son).

I had previously always pronounced it with a voiced /z/, which prevented me from parsing it other than as Wurzel (carrot) + unanalysable /aoz/ + -ix, common ending for Gaulish names in the books.

However, this morning it came to me that the name is very likely Wurzel aus ix, pronounced with two glottal stops! Wurzel means not only "carrot", but has the basic meaning "root" (e.g. of a plant), and here means "mathematical nth root, especially a square root", giving the entire name/phrase the meaning "(square) root of x", or "√x".

Comments

[elgrande.livejournal.com]

"Wurzel (carrot)"

I vaguely remember someone once telling me that where they come from they call carrots "Wurzel", which I found really funny. To me, "Wurzel" exclusively means "root" and I can't recall ever hearing anyone call a carrot "Wurzel". So your interpretation wouldn't have occurred to me.

[pne.livejournal.com]

Yes -- for me, the basic words are "Wurzel" and "Karotte", though later on I learned that "Karotte" is a separate thing (smaller and more nearly round, rather than the longish ones). I still tend to use them interchangeably.

I recognise "Möhre" and "Gelbe Rübe", but I don't think I use them myself.

[elgrande.livejournal.com]

For me the basic words are "Möhre" and more formally "Mohrrübe". I don't use "Karotte" actively but I understand it (though I'm not sure how exactly it differs from "Möhre"). I have heard "Gelbe Rübe" a couple of times but I wouldn't have known what exactly it is. I don't understand "Wurzel". ;)

[pne.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, Mohrrübe; I've heard/seen that one, too.

As for "Gelbe Rübe", I don't think I've ever heard or seen it in "real life" -- only on lists of "things which have different names in different parts of Germany". (So those lists might have been making stuff up and I wouldn't know the difference.)

[jordik.livejournal.com]

That /is/ a good pun. Wonder why it never occurred to me? I own almost all Asterix albums in German, including this one.