Sunday Rest: tuan. Word Not To Use Today.

Tuan is a very lovely word which could easily be slipped into a piece of Science Fiction as the name of the heroic leader of the Resistance against the Evil Regime.

(Science Fiction doesn't have much of a taste for the cuddly, does it. Though there are, of course, Ewoks.)

The trouble with the word tuan is that, while in Malay tuan is a word used as a sign of respect, in Australia it's something much too much like a flying rat:

Lithograph by John Gould FRS

To make things even worse, the poor male tuan die as a result of the stress caused by breeding, so that none of them live beyond the age of one year.

And, really, the possibilities for misunderstanding are simply terrifying.

Word Not To Use Today: tuan. This word used in Malaysia is, predictably, Malay. The animal word comes from a native Australasian language of Western Victoria.