A celestial sickle?

Biopolitics

Junior Member
Joined
Jul 8, 2024
Member Type
Interested in Language
Native Language
German
Home Country
Austria
Current Location
Russian Federation
Dear forum members,
the crescent moon looks like a sickle (without a handle). That's why the same word is used in several languages like German and Russian for both sickle and crescent. Many metaphors and even myths are based on the comparison between the crescent moon and the sickle used to cut crops. I'm curious whether such a comparison is not at all reflected in the English language?.
 
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“A what? ‘A sickle moon. It’s shaped like a sickle, you know — a tool. There used to be one on the flag of the USSR.’”
—Wendy Elks, Sickle Moon Ghost (1999)


“If there is a full moon or a very thin sickle moon, there will be a spring tide.”
—Barry Beck, Fly‑Fishing the Flats (1999)
 
May I pick up the thread about the moon etc. where I left it off several months ago?
In Austria, a popular legendary character is Johann der Dumme (= Johann the Fool), and there are lots of funny stories about his (mis)adventures. On one occcasion, his wife sent him to her mother (his mother-in-law) to hand over some food for her such as a big flat cake, several meat dumplings, and some gravy. The wife also told him to give the following message to her mother: The moon is full, there are lots of stars on the sky, and the sky is dark. On the way to the mother-in-law, Johann got hungry and gobbled up a part of the flat cake and some dumplings. He also consumed some gravy. The mother-in-law received what was left of the gift with the following message for her daughter: The moon is on the wane, there only very few stars on the sky, the sky is light. The wife immediately got the point and became very angry with the husband (in one of the versions of the story, she put him up in a donkey stable) .
 
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Thanks for that, @Biopolitics. Now I know why in English we call certain people dummies.
 
Of course not. You told us what the German word Dumme means.

Don't forget to end every sentence with a full stop or other appropriate punctuation mark.
 
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Perhaps:

She sent him to her mother for him to take her some food.

Or:

She sent him to her mother for him to give her some food.

I wouldn't use "hand over" there.
 
Thanks for correcting me. Hopefully this was the only language problem with my story
 
And AGAIN @Biopolitics please remember to end each and every sentence with a full stop, or a question mark, or an exclamation mark.
 

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