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It's very strange to see a word from your native language whose plural has been tampered with. In German, the plural of Einzelgänger (loner, lone wolf, maverick) is the same as the singular, but in Dutch, it becomes Einzelgängers. The meaning of the original German remains largely unchanged, however, just like the spelling.
The image is from www.slideshare.net.
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Depending on how hot it is where you are right now, you might be wishing for a cool breeze off a glacier. In the Netherlands, you'd have to look very hard indeed to find one, however. For obvious reasons, there are many words of German origin for things to do with mountains in the Dutch language. Gletsjer is one of them. The "sj" approximates the "sch" in the original German Gletscher.
The image is from www.dearend.nl.  This Monday, the Word of the Week reaches you from Montepulciano, Italy. Time for a postcard! The Dutch use the German term Ansichtskarte in a slightly modified version - ansichtkaart.
As my colleague Eva Bodor tells me, the Hungarians use it, too - in the significantly less recognizable reincarnation anzix. Sounds like the Asterix and Obelix term for a postcard! The image is from www.drukland.nl.  It's a shame that the website mentioned above is no longer available. I would have loved to find out more about the "Day of the Submissive Husband"! This is what Pantoffelheld means in German - and in Dutch, too.
The image is from www.vimeo.com.  Only 86 days to go till the next FIFA World Cup! Time to look at a piece of football/soccer terminology: the (blatant) dive, known in German as Schwalbe (swallow) - apparently because a diving player's splayed arms and legs are reminiscent of a swallow's wings and tail. The Dutch have taken over this term (as evidenced by the above still from an interview with Arjen Robben who, according to Wikipedia, is infamous for his dives.) For those of you who speak Dutch: somebody seems to have come up with a Dutch equivalent, the fopduik.
 Today is Shrove Monday, the most important day of German carnival. Not that I'm a carnival fan myself, but it is a nice opportunity to present you a carnival-related term - schminken, and the matching noun, schmink. The verb schminken is used for all kinds of makeup in German, from your daily mascara and eyeliner to children's face paint. In Dutch, however, it is used exclusively for the more flamboyant kind (see picture), including stage makeup. For this purpose, the Dutch use schmink, which is the German Schminke minus the "e".
The image is from http://adwords.fun-en-feest.nl.  For some reason, a nice memory from when I was studying in Heidelberg popped into my head today: I once encountered a man playing the bagpipe in the middle of a field outside of the city. Funny enough, the German term for bagpipe, Dudelsack, is also among those that have migrated to other languages, so I decided to give it pride of place on my blog today. In Dutch, the bagpipe is called doedelzak and is pronounced almost exactly like the German original - it's just the "l" that is a little bit different.
The image is from www.uitvaartdoedelzakspeler.nl. 
This is a recent discovery of mine, and one that concerns several languages. In English, Dutch and French (and perhaps even more languages), the musical instrument you can see above is known by its German name, Glockenspiel. In German, however, Glockenspiel has a second meaning that didn't survive the transfer to the other languages - "carillon".
The image is from www.kids.britannica.com. 
I believe that this week's choice is one of those words that spread to other languages because they fill a gap - they provide a name for something that is nameless in those languages. Kitsch is used in English, French, Dutch and Danish, to name just a few.
The image is from www.theworldofkitsch.com.  Admittedly, this week's pick isn't a very good fit for the peace-loving pre-Christmas season. Hetze (in the sense of agitation against somebody/something; hunt) is used in Dutch with the same meaning. As a German I can't help thinking of the Nazi's hate campaign against the Jews, the Judenhetze, whenever I see this word.
Nonetheless, I wish you all a happy time in the run-up to Christmas! The image is from www.stichtingmilieunet.nl. |
AboutThis is a blog about the traces German (my mother tongue) has left in other languages. Contributions from your language(s) are more than welcome! Mail me at b.priebe@aiic.net. Archives
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