Flash of revelation

[pne]

I just realised something.

I looked up Al-Qaeda (which I had just seen mentioned somewhere) to see how it was spelled in Arabic (القاعدة, FWIW).

Then I imagined what the cognate Maltese word would be... and, from al-qāʕida, got as far as il-qiegħ... and realised that it must be cognate to e.g. qagħhad joqgħod and poġġi bil-qiegħda.

(Not sure whether the cognate would really be il-qiegħda, though; could also be il-qagħda, for example, which is a word, according to my dictionary.)

Hmm... since qiegħda is the feminine form of qiegħed, would that make "Al-Qaeda" be "the sitting female" in Maltese?

Comments

[wingflutter.livejournal.com]

nope, bil-qieghda is 'sitting down' whether the 'sitter' is male or female. and il-qaghda is more of 'a pose' than an actual pose.

you might describe someone as standing tall and confident - that would be, eg, ghandha qaghda kunfidenti (she has a tall and confident look/pose)