Carpegian

October 10, 2010 5:46 PM

What is the etymology and meaning of the word 'carpegian'?

The band Reverend Glasseye has a song titled "Mother is a Carpegian". There is no obvious definition of the word on the internet. Emails to the band go unanswered.

Do you know or can you guess at the etymology of the word 'carpegian' came from?

posted by nomadicink to Writing & Language (6 answers total)

Nothing in the OED, the closest word I can find is the Brazilian surname Carpegiani and the Italian commune Carpegna.
posted by Paragon at 6:05 PM on October 10, 2010

My guess is that they either made the word up (c.f. "Sussudio" and countless others) or were aiming for Carpathian and missed.

I can't find the lyrics for the song online, can you post some of the relevant stuff, so we can see the word in context?
posted by ErikaB at 6:06 PM on October 10, 2010

Probably anglicised Carpigiani, a native of Carpi, Modena, Italy.
posted by Sys Rq at 6:09 PM on October 10, 2010

Do they mean, "Capetian"? A french word, but it would be spoken like you would say, "Carpegian" with a, "g" like, "legion"
posted by alex_skazat at 6:12 PM on October 10, 2010

It's not Carpathian as the enunciation is clear on that particular word.

The refrain where the word is mentioned is tough to completely decipher, but here's what I can get:

I got daughter and she looks like me
well she oughta she's got half of my genes
and the mother is a carpegian..

The last two lines of the refrain are indecipherable, despite buying the album off of iTunes. The singer can speak/sing really fast at times. You can listen to the song off of their MySpace page.
posted by nomadicink at 3:25 AM on October 11, 2010

I'm pretty sure they made it up, but for anyone who wants to investigate this plate of beans more closely, they pronounce it /karpə'dʒiən/ (kar-puh-JEE-uhn), not kar-PEE-juhn or however you might have assumed.
posted by languagehat at 8:14 AM on October 11, 2010