This week's pick isn't as easily recognizable as being of German origin as some of the others I have presented here. In Norwegian, bursdag means birthday - a bastardized version of Geburtstag. They also use two longer versions, geburtsdag (Norwegian Bokmål) and gebursdag (Norwegian Nynorsk), both of which are almost identical to the original German. (Yes, the Norwegians have two (written) languages - more about this here.)

For those of you who read Norwegian, here's an interesting article about how the different Norwegian versions of Geburtstag came about.
 
The image is from www.hermon.no.

A while ago we had vorspiel, now let's take a look at nachspiel. Both are interesting cases because what they are used for in Norwegian differs considerably from their original meaning. The most common meaning of Nachspiel in German is "unpleasant consequences." The Norwegians, however, use it for something potentially very enjoyable - "after-party". And so the three founders of moods of Norway apparently developed their international brand from an idea they conceived over a few glasses of pricey Norwegian alcohol - at least that's what they claim above. 

The image is from www.slideshare.net.

Spring is almost here - time to clean the windows! Including the glazing bars, if any. They are called Sprossen in German, as well as in Norwegian and Danish. 

The image is from www.sentrumbygg.no.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FROM AUSPUFF TO ZEITGEIST - MY BLOG HAS BEEN AROUND FOR A YEAR NOW! THANK YOU FOR FOLLOWING ME!

This week's Word of the Week has a very intriguing history. A Prügelknabe is the German version of a whipping boy, a position that was introduced at the English court a few centuries ago. Whipping boys were boys who grew up and were educated with princes and were punished for the failings of their royal companions. This was because no one but the king had the right to punish a prince, and the king was often absent. This form of discipline worked because the princes often developed a close relationship with their whipping boy, making it hard for them to witness the punishment that they should have undergone themselves. Click here for more background information.

Today, Prügelknabe is mainly used as a synonym for scapegoat. The same is true for prygelknabe, which is the form Prügelknabe takes in Danish and Norwegian. 

The image is from www.gucca.dk.

My colleague Maren Heiber alerted me to a curios case of word migration: the Norwegians use vorspiel for "pre-party". In German, Vorspiel has several meanings (among which "sexual foreplay" features prominently), but it never means "pre-party". The Norwegians also use nachspiel, but more about this in a future post!

The image is from www.badlandso.page.tl.