In the last couple of days I’ve discovered the Biloxi used to say
yani(ksoni) įni
tobacco(pipe) drink
While at first the idea of "drinking" tobacco seemed odd, I’ve since discovered that it is not so unusual. I’m told that "drink" for smoke also occurs in Crow (another Siouan language), some eastern Algonquian languages, and even Japanese:
tabako wo nomu
tobacco OBJ drink
Anyone know of other languages that have this idea of "drinking" for smoking?
Update: It appears I can add Hindi and Egyptian Arabic to the above. Thanks for your feedback!
4 comments:
The Hindi word for smoking tobacco:
"Tumbako piina", literally "to drink tobacco".
This is far more universally widespread than I thought! Cool.
In a short story by Zakaria Tamir, a young man smokes a cigarette after escaping from the room where his parents sit.
The verb is " 'abba " and appears in dictionaries as "to gulp, to swallow in one draught" and gives me the idea of "chug-a-lug".
So in this occurrence, it gives me the image of a smoker taking long or rapid drags on a cigarette.
It also appears in Elizabethan English and Old English.
Jeffery Hodges
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