It works like this in some languages; e.g. Japanese technical terminology is linked word formation originating from Chinese.<p>Atom: 原子: (genshi) "primitive progeny".<p>Element: 原素: (genso) "primitive element".<p>Hydrogen: 水素: (suiso) "water element".<p>Oxygen: 酸素: (sanso) "acid element".<p>Carbon: 炭素: (tanso) "charcoal element".<p>Chlorine: 塩素: (enso) "salt element".<p>Coal: 石炭: (sekitan) "stone charcoal".<p>Carbon dioxide: 二酸化炭素 (nisan-ka tanso): "two acid/'oxid' -ized carbon".<p>Line, ray: 線: line, ray.<p>Ultraviolet ray: 紫外線 (shigaisen): "purple outside-of ray".<p>Infrared ray: 赤外線 (sekigaisen): "red outside-of ray".<p>Deep infrared: 遠赤外線 (ensekigaisen): "far red outside-of ray".<p>Yamanote train line: 山手線 (yamanotesen). :)<p>Amplification: 増幅 (zōfuku) "increase width".<p>Instrument: 器 (ki).<p>Amplifier: 増幅機 (zōfuku ki) "increase width instrument".<p>Difference: 差 (sa)<p>Differential amplifier: 差動増幅器 (sadō zōfukuki) "difference movement increase width instrument"
I'm amazed at how much I could understand of that. I presume ymirstuff is uranium. Many of the others are more obvious.
Odd: "Germanstuff" for Titanium.. did Poul mean Entstuff? (Didn't read enough Tolkien?)<p>Was perhaps actually inspired by modern German.. surprisingly, "Stoff" is from old french via early modern(!) Dutch. Proper A-S might be "andwork/anwerk[.de]"<p><a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/andweorc" rel="nofollow">https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/andweorc</a><p>Cathay-andwork (for chinesium)<p>Unbeget-andwork (for unobtainium)<p><a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Stoff#German" rel="nofollow">https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Stoff#German</a>
This was lovely.
The wikipedia article linked to in the beginning contains a glossary if you want to understand this - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncleftish_Beholding" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncleftish_Beholding</a>
We need to start teaching everything in Anglo-Saxon:<p>"Some of the higher samesteads are splitly. That is, when a neitherbit strikes the kernel of one, as for a showdeal ymirstuff-235, it bursts into lesser kernels and free neitherbits; the latter can then split more ymirstuff-235. When this happens, weight shifts into work. It is not much of the whole, but nevertheless it is awesome."