GalacticCactus Forum

Author Topic: Literal translations  (Read 2764 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Jonathon

  • Evil T-Rex
  • Administrator
  • Übermember
  • *****
  • Posts: 24,680
  • This is the darkest timeline
    • View Profile
    • GalacticCactus
Literal translations
« 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!
You underestimate my ability to take things seriously!

Offline Porter

  • ruining funny with facts
  • Übermember
  • *****
  • Posts: 22,333
  • long time lurker, first time poster
    • View Profile
Literal translations
« Reply #1 on: October 31, 2007, 11:26:37 AM »
What do they call food?  Runstuff?  Breathestuff?  Notdiewelldiesomedaybutnottodaystuff?
Tomorrow Poster
Sooner or later, this forum is going to max out on hyperliteralness.

Offline Tante Shvester

  • Souper Member
  • Super Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 9,868
    • View Profile
    • About Tante
Literal translations
« Reply #2 on: October 31, 2007, 12:44:39 PM »
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.
« Last Edit: October 31, 2007, 12:49:32 PM by Tante Shvester »
Fighting thread drift with guilt, reverse psychology, and chicken soup.
Sweet! Law of Moses loopholes! -- Anneke
I love Bones.  -- Sweet Clementine
She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli and he was room-temperature Canadian beef. -- anonymous

Offline Neutros the Radioactive Dragon

  • Radiant Reptile
  • Dragons
  • Super Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1,653
    • View Profile
    • scatterfilter
Literal translations
« Reply #3 on: October 31, 2007, 01:01:49 PM »
Gee.  I thought a crank house was full of methanphetamine addicts...

Those CWA-A-AZY Germans!

Offline rivka

  • Linguistic Anarchist
  • Übermember
  • *****
  • Posts: 14,155
    • View Profile
Literal translations
« Reply #4 on: October 31, 2007, 05:02:48 PM »
I still like Katzenellenbogen. It is a last name of some note and the name of a city. And it means "cat's elbow." :D

(Although apparently, not really.)
"Sometimes you need a weirdo to tell you that things have gotten weird. Your normal friends, neighbors, and coworkers won’t tell you."
-Aaron Kunin

Offline dkw

  • Super Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1,016
    • View Profile
Literal translations
« Reply #5 on: October 31, 2007, 08:55:25 PM »
Mittagessen = mid day eat = lunch

Abendessen = evening eat = supper

But breakfast is not "Morgenessen."
« Last Edit: October 31, 2007, 08:56:06 PM by dkw »

Offline Jonathon

  • Evil T-Rex
  • Administrator
  • Übermember
  • *****
  • Posts: 24,680
  • This is the darkest timeline
    • View Profile
    • GalacticCactus
Literal translations
« Reply #6 on: November 01, 2007, 07:39:03 AM »
Quote
I still like Katzenellenbogen. It is a last name of some note and the name of a city. And it means "cat's elbow." :D

(Although apparently, not really.)
Ah, too bad. Though I guess that makes more sense.
You underestimate my ability to take things seriously!

Offline Farmgirl

  • Out Standing in Her Field
  • Super Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 3,598
    • View Profile
Re: Literal translations
« Reply #7 on: October 29, 2015, 03:06:55 PM »
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?

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"??
"Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you’re a thousand miles from the corn field." - Dwight D. Eisenhower

Being a farmer is not something that you do—it is something that you are.


If I could eat only one fruit, I wouldn't choose the blueberry. It is too small. I'd go with watermelon. There is a lot to eat on a watermelon. - Tante

Offline Jonathon

  • Evil T-Rex
  • Administrator
  • Übermember
  • *****
  • Posts: 24,680
  • This is the darkest timeline
    • View Profile
    • GalacticCactus
Re: Literal translations
« Reply #8 on: October 29, 2015, 09:00:29 PM »
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.
You underestimate my ability to take things seriously!

Offline Dobie

  • Veteran Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 161
    • View Profile
Re: Literal translations
« Reply #9 on: October 30, 2015, 11:22:45 AM »
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