How do you say - - ?

[Liis]

Prügila = Landfill, refuse plant, dump, tip or ...?
Birders often find these things very good hunting grounds.

Dictionaries and Internet all mainly agree on landfill.

But: "Landfill" sounds nice and reasonably clean, the final composting stage on the way of refuse back to soil. What is in it then for the birds ...?

I have an uncomfortable feeling that "landfill" is prettyfying the actual operations and sites.

[Kitty KCMO]

Prügila = Landfill, refuse plant, dump, tip or ...?
Birders often find these things very good hunting grounds.

Dictionaries and Internet all mainly agree on landfill.

But: "Landfill" sounds nice and reasonably clean, the final composting stage on the way of refuse back to soil. What is in it then for the birds ...?

I have an uncomfortable feeling that "landfill" is prettyfying the actual operations and sites.

I think you are pretty close to the truth, Liis! In my part of the world, a landfill is basically a dump that is covered over daily with soil. A large pit is excavated & filled with trash / garbage, then bulldozers push soil back over the mess to eliminate (to some extent) the bad smells. But basically, a dump is what it is.

[Liis]

In my part of the world they built GIANT refuse dumps as the very last stage. Or did, anyway. Large enough to change the local topography, and after they had cooled down, used for slalom skiing tracks

Meanwhile, a somewhat delicate question: what is a boar sow expecting to give birth?
"Pregnant" is for humans. Animals have a gestation period, but can they be gestate?

[Jo UK]

Dictionary defines pregnancy as a feature of female mammals. That would include us, and boars!

But I don't know of any special term for boars.

Gestation - to carry in the womb during the period from conception to delivery.
We know that whales and elephants have a gestation period (among other mammals) so it can't be wrong to use the word in reference to boars.
If someone knows more, please tell us!

[Felis silvestris]

In German we say this or that animal is "trächtig" or "tragend" ~ is "carrying". I looked it up where I usually check things, Leo, and there I found: Die Sau ist trächtig = The sow is in pig
(http://dict.leo.org/ende?lp=ende&lang=d ... C3%A4chtig)

Otherwise their result also shows pregnant, or heavy with young, in calf, in foal.

[Liis]

A general word like German drächtig was what I was looking for, or at least wanted to make sure that there isn't.
Swedish has "dräktig" that says about animals in general what pregnant ("havande") says about humans.

Felis - "sow in pig" - hmmm! might as well say gestate, but somehow that makes me think of Freud.
"Gestate" for a pregnant animal is in my English-Swedish dictionary, but not the other way about. When I look up "dräktig" gestate isn't given as English translation.
Gestation period, length of gestation are there for the corresponding terms.

PS. More complications - Wikipedia ...
Gestation is the carrying of an embryo or fetus inside a female viviparous animal. Mammals during pregnancy can have one or more gestations at the same time (multiple gestations).

[alice44]

I do not know about that multiple gestations (and firefox does not accept the plural) .

[maertha]

Meanwhile, a somewhat delicate question: what is a boar sow expecting to give birth?
"Pregnant" is for humans. Animals have a gestation period, but can they be gestate?

"Pregnant sow" seems to be commonly used. If you try the keyword combinations "pregnant sow hunting" and "closed season pregnant wild boar" you´ll get a lot of Google hits.

Giving birth = farrowing (in the farrowing nest)

[Arvi]

In Estonian it is really simple. For humans you use 'rase', for all other mammals 'tiine'. That's all folks

[Liis]

In Estonian it is really simple. For humans you use 'rase', for all other mammals 'tiine'. That's all folks

Well, yes - that is precisely the problem. Can't bring the Estonian simplicity over into English

Many languages make a difference between human and animal pregnancy, more or less strictly (the special words for different animals I will happily leave to specialists needing them). In some languages the animal word is becoming rarer: simplification of language, less people have to do with farming and animals in practice ...
In its way it is a parallel to the Mr /Mrs (Ms, Miss) case (when in doubt, much less trouble if you choose Mr, wrongly ): you might get away, alive, with pregnant, rase, havande, schwanger, enceinte etc for an animal but never, ever with gestate (if that is the word?), dräktig, tiine, drächtig ... for a human mother-to-be
So - if there is no special word, we might avoid dangerous mistakes in English

[Jo UK]

But - but - but - what is the problem? Animals get pregnant. They have a gestation period. They go into labour which ends in birth of a young mammal - human ot other wise.
I think "baby" should be reserved for humans, as should mummy and daddy
Mammals have young and are usually referred to by the name for that species. Calves, foals, kittens cubs, etc.
Humans have babies.

Mammals have adult male and female parent.

[alice44]

There may be different terms for some pregnant mammals, but for most of us pregnancy is the word, whatever the species.

I often use the word baby -- baby giraffe, baby elephant, baby wolf -- probably rarely just baby, as Jo said that is really more for humans. I don't always know the real term and I am rather lazy and flexible about such things. I think I use cub to mean a variety of young animals not just wolves and lions (are young coyotes cubs? I suspect so)-- although I probably try to make sure that the person I am talking to knows what mammal I mean. On the other hand I do sometimes try to use the "proper" terms occasionally so that they do not just disappear.

[Liis]

But - but - but - what is the problem? Animals get pregnant. They have a gestation period. They go into labour which ends in birth of a young mammal - human ot other wise.
I think "baby" should be reserved for humans, as should mummy and daddy
Mammals have young and are usually referred to by the name for that species. Calves, foals, kittens cubs, etc.
Humans have babies.

Mammals have adult male and female parent.

The problem is the difference between languages
In Estonian (Swedish, German, French(?), ... ) you have strict apartheld between the pregnant humans and the dito animals. And woe betide if the animal word is used for a human.
English is equal-rights and uses the same word for animal and human pregnancy. So far all clear - now.
Except - not quite equal, yet - that pregnancy vs gestation period ...

[alice44]

The gestation period of humans is 9 months, during those 9 months the woman is pregnant.

I think we use gestation to describe the length of a typical pregnancy, but not very often to describe the experience of any one animal of any kind -- especially people

[macdoum]

Gestate seems to be the word you are looking for.

gestate [ˈdʒɛsteɪt]
vb
1. (Life Sciences & Allied Applications / Biology) (tr) to carry (developing young) in the uterus during pregnancy
2. (tr) to develop (a plan or idea) in the mind
3. (Life Sciences & Allied Applications / Biology) (intr) to be in the process of gestating
[back formation from gestation]
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003

ex; A gestating sow.
That do ?....

[maertha]

Meanwhile, a somewhat delicate question: what is a boar sow expecting to give birth?
"Pregnant" is for humans. Animals have a gestation period, but can they be gestate?

I'm not sure if I understood your question correctly, but a pregnant sow some days before farrowing seems to be OK. Or not?

[Liis]

I'm not sure if I understood your question correctly, but a pregnant sow some days before farrowing seems to be OK. Or not?

Yes, and yes - that is, in English vocabulary animals are pregnant as are humans, but might have a gestation rather than pregnancy period, though in the strictly medical sense there may be a difference in the definitions of gestation period and pregnancy, ie it might be slightly different states

And yes, farrowing is the special word for pig and boar sows giving birth to their young (for now I will avoid the tempting question of the origins, etymologically, of farrow ... )

About willows - any "pet" word in English for willow catkins?
Pajukiisud, pajutudud in Estonian, videkissar in Swedish - roughly = "willow pussies", "willow kitties"

[alice44]

pussy willows

[Liis]

pussy willows

Thank you, Alice !

On my own I would definitely have believed that pussy willow is the tree/shrub ...

[alice44]

Thank you, Alice !

On my own I would definitely have believed that pussy willow is the tree/shrub ...

When cut, the limbs and bring them in to put in a vase as one of the first signs of spring those catkin things are definitely pussy willows.

My dad trimmed his way back, cutting too many for his house, at the beginning of feb. and put buckets out with a sign "Free" and people took them happily.