GalacticCactus Forum
Forums => English & Linguistics => Topic started by: Jonathon on October 31, 2007, 11:24:30 AM
-
This the thread for posting literal translations that you find funny or noteworthy.
I just came across the German word "treibstoff" (meaning "gasoline" or "fuel") at work. I instantly had a hunch as to what the literal piece-by-piece translation was, so I looked it up to be sure.
treibstoff = drivestuff
I love it!
-
What do they call food? Runstuff? Breathestuff? Notdiewelldiesomedaybutnottodaystuff?
-
Yeah, German likes to mash together single words to make new ones.
I'm a nurse. German for nurse is "Sister" ("Shvester"). Actually, it's "Krankenschwester" -- "Sickness Sister", but sometimes they say "Schwester" for short. And I know in Yiddish, the word for "nurse" is "Shvester" -- "sister".
And hospital is Krankenhaus -- sick house.
-
Gee. I thought a crank house was full of methanphetamine addicts...
Those CWA-A-AZY Germans!
-
I still like Katzenellenbogen. It is a last name of some note (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katzenellenbogen) and the name of a city. And it means "cat's elbow." :D
(Although apparently, not really (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katzenelnbogen#Etymology).)
-
Mittagessen = mid day eat = lunch
Abendessen = evening eat = supper
But breakfast is not "Morgenessen."
-
I still like Katzenellenbogen. It is a last name of some note (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katzenellenbogen) and the name of a city. And it means "cat's elbow." :D
(Although apparently, not really (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katzenelnbogen#Etymology).)
Ah, too bad. Though I guess that makes more sense.
-
Resurrecting this post because its the only one I can find from a search for dinner/supper (I know we've had this converation before)
So haven't we talked about this? (http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/whats-the-difference-between-dinner-and-supper-224775?utm_campaign=simplereach&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=simplereach_facebook&sr_source=lift_facebook)
I know growing up on the farm, the mid-day meal was always "lunch" and the evening was "supper" unless it was a big special meal or company meal like "Sunday Dinner"
But while this says it might have been regional -- I then thought about daVinci's "The Last Supper" -- but what language was that originally titled in, that they translated it into "supper"??
-
It's Italian, and apparently it's known as either Il Cenacolo or L'Ultima Cena, meaning either "the upper room" or "the last supper/dinner".
The weird thing about the word dinner is that, etymologically, it means 'breakfast'. It ultimately comes from the Latin dis + ieiuno, which literally means 'break the fast'. By the time it was borrowed into English from French, it had come to refer to lunch, which was the main meal of the day, and that's why we still have that split. People who ate their largest meal at midday might call it dinner, but people who began to eat the largest meal in the evening called that dinner instead.
Fun fact: in French, the name of every meal means 'breakfast', etymologically speaking. After diner came to mean the midday meal, déjeuner was formed from the same root to mean 'breakfast'. But then dinner came to be the evening meal, déjeuner became the midday meal, and the morning meal became known as petit déjeuner.
-
Yeah, German likes to mash together single words to make new ones.
I'm a nurse. German for nurse is "Sister" ("Shvester"). Actually, it's "Krankenschwester" -- "Sickness Sister", but sometimes they say "Schwester" for short. And I know in Yiddish, the word for "nurse" is "Shvester" -- "sister".
And hospital is Krankenhaus -- sick house.
English, too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruAAOytfgiQ&t=7m58s