Posts

Fun etymology of Hrathi/Fart = the scandinavian words for speed.

  fart is related (in this context) to english fare, as in taxi fare, farewell, etc., meaning to go. Icelandic, hrathi, is related directly to english 'rather'. In old english, 'rather' meant 'i'd sooner/.faster', e.g. 'i'd sooner eat a pencil', meaning, 'i'd faster or more quickly decide to eat a pencil'. Hence, rather, in english, came to mean, a preferred alternative, rather than 'faster'. Another interesting instance of 'rather' is the name Hrothgar in the poem Beowulf. It means 'Fast Spear', compare english 'rather gore', where gore means to be speared by a bull. Hrothgar survives in modern English as ROGER. Which hilariously in british slang means to... spear someone... with something. As in "give someone a good rogering". Show less
Read more

Etymology of Work vs Arbeit, Travail, etc. A chat with ChatGPT

Hi. give me the name of a german job/career which has a ridculously large number of syllables, which has a short english equivalent. e.g. secretary / schreibertelefonantworterfraumensch or something like that. ChatGPT said: A classic example (though slightly tongue-in-cheek) is: "Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz" (63 letters, ~20 syllables) Literal: "Beef labeling regulation & delegation law" English equivalent: "labelling law" or even just "regulation" For an actual job title, consider: "Fachkraft für Arbeitssicherheit" (≈11 syllables) English: "Safety officer" Or this exaggerated (but plausible) creation: "Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän" (≈16 syllables) English: "ship captain" Want a real but bureaucratically ridiculous one? Try: "Versicherungsleistungsabrechnungsbearbeiter" = insurance claim processor Would you like more genuine o...
Read more