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Old 04-17-2019, 08:57 PM
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TexasJack TexasJack is offline
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Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Southeast Texas
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I don't know if you noticed, but you replied to a 15 year old post. I understand Sandy is still around, but Chuck passed away several years ago.

If you look at the etymology of the terms, scabbard comes from French while sheath comes from Old English (Germanic). When the Normans conquered England in 1066, the ruling class became French, and spoke French for a long time. Many words in modern English evolved out of this disparity. For example, the names of animals were Germanic - e.g., swine, sheep, cow - while the names of food were French - pork, mutton, beef. Depended on whether you were the class that raised food, or the class that got to enjoy it.

Ruling class folks had serious blades - with scabbards, lower class had knives - with sheaths.


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