Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/12/01
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]On Sunday, Dec 1, 2002, at 01:59 America/Los_Angeles, Håkan Dennersten wrote: > Hehe, i don't know anything about languagehistory but i do know that > there is only three words we given the english language recently: > Ombudsman, smorgasboard and bureaucracy... These three words says also > a lot about Swedish culture... :) Sorry to burst your bubble, but bureaucracy does *not* come from Swedish. It's etymology is French, from "bureau" for office and "-cratie", rule (from Old French). It was designed to prevent what in Swedish *is* known as "svågerpolitik", or, to the rest of us, giving preference to friends or family. Somewhere along the line it went terribly wrong (as can be witnessed in the brilliant film "Brazil") and the rest, as they say, is history. M. - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html