Python code and data https://gist.github.com/cavedave/b731785a9c43cd3ff76c36870249e7f1
Main inspiration https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fapnha37a0fk51.jpg wiktionary and this (source entries linked in data csv) used a lot

Here translated means going back far enough till I find some funny root words. Turkish, Welsh (and main Irish word) and some others do not have known root words.

Posted by cavedave

26 comments

  1. Skin Thing sounds like it would be the villain in a comic book starring a skeletal hero

  3. I’ll show you my skin thing if you show me your leather flapper.

  4. “Dark death”—goodness, the Irish must be terrified of bats.

  5. If anything, it’s English that has the strangest name for a bat.

  6. Everyone else is giving either a literal description or an archaic/plague-era title to bats, meanwhile, North Africa is singing Macklemore’s Thrift Shop.

  9. Leather flapper! That sounds like a Samuel L. Jackson quote 🙂

  10. Ireland didn’t hold back on their naming of the flap mouse.

  11. For anyone interested, bat comes from Middle English bakke, which likely comes from the Old Norse leðrblaka, meaning “leather flapper.” Makes sense that the most isolated language cluster for the old Norse language in Iceland has the same translation.

  12. In polish “nietoperz” has nothing to do with night flyer, and the source You mention on your page – wiki does not saying anything like that it is night flyer.

  13. I wasn’t sure if Dark Death or Leather Flapper was my favourite.

    The. I saw watwat watwat

  14. Hey baby, why don’t you come back to my place and let me show you my naked night one 😏

  15. “plane mouse”—what did they call it before planes were invented?

  16. i had to look more into this for Spanish.

    It seems Murcielago comes from Murciego which is old Spanish for Mur(‘Mouse’) + ciego(‘Blind’). I was not able to find anything further to see where little came from.

    Edit: Forgot to add, in some Spanish speaking countries it is also known as “Raton Volador” which literally translates to “Flying Mouse”

  18. The Hungarian translation is straight up wrong, there is no translation for it. If it was actually called “skin mouse”, it would be “bőregér”, but we call it “denevér”

  19. I see Ireland being dramatic over there, but do we need to have a talk with Albania?

  21. “Skin mouse” for hungarian is not actually what we call bats, that’s just a nickname.

  22. In Hungary, the formal term for a bat is the “denevér”, no one actually calls a bat “bőregér” in everyday conversation. You’d only hear this word used when someone is telling a very old fairy tale or something similar.

  23. The Hungarian one is incorrect. While synonymous, I’ve never once come across anyone that refers to a bat as ‘bőr egér’ rather than ‘denevér;’ the etymology of which I am not familiar with.

  24. From what I can find the Dutch vleermuis is wing + mouse. Not really flapper.

    It might come from flapper, as I’ve seen some of these are based on etymology rather than translation.

    There’s one source I’ve found that says it’s either vleer = wing, or vleer coming from vleder = flapper, but most sources give “wing” for vleder as well. Vledder on the other hand appears to be a swampy area which is completely unrelated😂

  26. Regarding the turkish word “yarasa”, there doesn’t seem to be a consensus, but if you go back far enough, some sources claim that it translates to “skin thing”, or going further back, “skin wing”.

    Other sources seem to think it translates to “disgusting thing” or “furious creature”.

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