Not where that comes from. Both from Proto-Indo-European, but “meal” as in “eating a meal” derives from “to measure” while “meal” as in “oatmeal” derives from “to mill”. They’re false cognates.
御飯 (“gohan”), meanwhile, literally is just “cooked rice”.
cognate (n): Related in origin, as certain words in genetically related languages descended from the same ancestral root
i assume it’s more clear in other languages, e.g. in swedish it’s “mjöl” for fine powders and “mål” for foodstuff.
That’s me learning german. Apparently Fremdsprache means foreign language so I went “Isn’t it weird that german calls other languages ‘strange language?’” then I thought about my own language (portuguese) ‘lingua estrangeira’ which is basically the same thing haha
Since stranger comes from strange, does it mean that strange means foreign, or that foreign means strange?
Would Dr Foreign be a better surgeon than Dr Strange?
THE PLOT THICKENS
this made me realize how weird the term feels in swedish, like in german it’s “strange language” but i can’t recall ever hearing it used.
We’d just say “another language” or something.
“Come and eat your meal!”
“Well, actshually, mom, there is no meal in this dish…”
“Shut up and eat”
