Do ferrets root? Somehow, the verb seems too benign, too herbivorous, for the activity of ferrets.

ferret go go go

Of course! That was where I first saw it. AND THUS THE SEEDS OF THIS POST WERE SOWN.

The online etymology dictionary seems to be using ‘ge’ and ‘ye’ interchangeably (anglo saxon style), making it a firmly anglo saxon word, but there have been lots of examples (eg ‘girl’) where a saxon origin seems to have a weird connection with similar words in latin or greek. They got around, no? xxx

Etymologically do you think yes is related to greek (and indeed indo european) ge (land, mother)?? Potentially very spurious but could be forced to work linguistically? Xxxxx

I really like Ulysses, but don’t understand it, which (sadly) makes me less enthusiastic than I feel I should be.

My response to that, Miranda, is “yeah, whatever”.

I think that Joyce is one of those authors one will never read unless one tackles him in one’s twenties. Now in my sixties, I’m content that I’ll never read him. I’d rather read Noel Streatfeild, and watch Xena DVDs.

Kafka is another author one will never read unless one tackles him in one’s twenties. I did read Kafka in my twenties. I was the only person I knew to think that “Amerika” was his best novel. I also thought that “The Hobbit” was better than “The Lord of the Rings”. There may have been no hope for me, even in my twenties!

In fact, given the etymology you give above Hodge, I wonder if there’s not a link? “So be it” would certainly appear to apply to the Irish “geas” as aptly as the English word “yes”.