How necessary English?

[Vaughn]

The last dozen or so posts about word origins have been
highly entertaining (for me, at least). Maybe you word origin
buffs can lay this legend to rest for me: on a talk radio show
many years ago, a "wordsmith" asserted that King Arthur,
while heavily inebriated, so enjoyed the fresh loin that lay
before him at the roundtable, that he stabbed it with a
scabbard, held it high and proclaimed, "I knight thee Sir Loin",
giving way to that household name for a cut of beef.

Truth or legend?

jb, I never heard "love apple" before, that's choice. But I have
dined on bubbles and squeak in Aberstwyth, Wales...

[SANDRO43]

Truth or legend?

Vaughn, sounds more like it belongs to your second category :

http://www.snopes.com/language/stories/sirloin.htm

Also

he stabbed it with a scabbard

sounds like a rather quaint procedure .

[Vaughn]

Snopes again! Good show. From that link

More importantly, though, it was not until the eighteenth century that the word "sirloin" came to be commonly spelled with an "i" — until then it was generally written as "surloin," indicating that it came from the Middle French surlonge (sur meaning "over" and longe meaning "loin"), just as the word "surname" came from the same French root (sur), indicating a family name that was used "over" (i.e., in addition to) one's Christian name.

Thanks, Sandro. I had my doubts all these years.

[I/O]

Could it be that after 14 pages of wondering hither and yon, the freshman would have no more idea of whether or not an English speaking Russian woman was likely to be more suitable than a non English speaking Russian woman, that is of course, if the freshman could wade through all the implied bragging about each and everyone' multi linguistic talents?

I can only assume from my tiny little tri-linguistic position that English is irrelevant after reading all of this. 

Just a thought.

I/O

[SANDRO43]

Could it be that after 14 pages of wondering hither and yon, the freshman would have no more idea of whether or not an English speaking Russian woman was likely to be more suitable than a non English speaking Russian woman,

Maybe you did not notice, but that was settled solomonically some pages ago:

1. Yes, it is
2. Maybe it is
3. No, it is not

The topic then progressed implicitly in the opposite direction (How Necessary Russian ?), to the inherent difficulties of Russian lexicon and phonetics.

if the freshman could wade through all the implied bragging about each and everyone' multi linguistic talents? Just a thought. I/O

Depends on the freshman, I should say, whether he considers non-strictly-utilitarian discussions just "implied bragging" or not.

[I/O]

Maybe you did not notice, but that was settled solomonically some pages ago:

1. Yes, it is
2. Maybe it is
3. No, it is not

The topic then progressed implicitly in the opposite direction (How Necessary Russian ?), to the inherent difficulties of Russian lexicon and phonetics.
Depends on the freshman, I should say, whether he considers non-strictly-utilitarian discussions just "implied bragging" or not.

Something like, "The decision is maybe and that is final..!!!!"

I/O