The German language has a lot of amazing words that mean exactly what they look like
they would mean.
I've talked about this in videos before: Words like Staubsauger, literally dust sucker
for vacuum, and Rolltreppe, rolling stairs for escalator.
But recently I've noticed some German words that just don't seem to make sense.
The meaning doesn't really line up with the different parts making up the word.
Hey everyone! I'm Dana and you're watching Wanted Adventure Living Abroad.
Within my first few weeks of moving to Germany and taking German lessons, I had already learned
that the meaning of many German words could be worked out from looking at the smaller
words within them.
So when I heard Mr. German Man say "schönen Feierabend," to the cashier at the grocery
store, I was a little confused.
Did you know that person? I asked him.
No.
So then how did you know that they were going to a party this evening?
Or a celebration or something, anything?
How did you know that they were doing something fun this evening?
He was very confused by my question.
And I was still confused about the word.
Feier means celebration or party in German, and Abend is evening.
So I figure that to wish someone a schönen Feierabend, that would mean have a nice party evening.
But actually, it turns out that the term "Feierabend" basically just refers to the evening after work.
So schönen Feierabend is basically wishing the person: have a nice evening after you
leave work.
Hausarzt literally means house doctor, so when I first moved to Germany and heard everyone
talking about seeing their Hausarzt, I was really surprised.
Like wow!
I can't believe that here in Germany, in this day and age, it's still common to have
doctors regularly coming to your house, making house calls when you're sick.
That's really amazing.
Especially since the people that I talked to just seemed to have just your average cold.
But then it made more sense when I learned that the word itself is a bit misleading.
Hausarzt doesn't mean the doctor that comes to your house.
Your hausarzt is your general practitioner or your primary care physician in Germany.
Gewürz means spice and nüsse are nuts.
So following the logic of most German words, wouldn't it make sense for Gewürznüsse to
be spiced nuts?
I certainly thought so.
I made this mistake quite recently in the trying German Christmas sweets video last year.
It was suggested that I try Gewürznüsse, so I went out and bought spiced nuts, only
to find out later that Gewürznüsse are actually a kind of Christmas cookie in Germany.
Hören means to hear.
And the definition of "auf" kind of shifts around, but means something like on
or upon or at.
So aufhören obviously means listening to something right?
Or at least it means something that in some way has to do with sounds?
Nope. It means stop.
Stop doing something.
Aufhören.
Why?! Why does it mean that?
I live in Bavaria, so I learned quite quickly into my German studies that one liter of beer
is called a Maß.
And a Meter, well, is a meter.
So when I picture a Metermaß, I see in my head a row of Maß beers a meter long.
Just beer after beer after beer.
I did the math and estimated that about 10 Maß beers could fit side by side in a meter.
So a Metermaß would be a row of ten Maß beers, right?
No, it's not anything like that.
A Metermaß is a tape measure.
Spiegelei! Spiegel...Ei.
Mirror, egg. Mirror-egg?
Nah, it's nothing so crazy.
Spiegel does mean mirror and Ei is egg, but a Spiegelei is just the name for a fried egg,
or as Americans call it, an egg sunny-side up.
Before getting to know the word dämlich, I learned about and used quite regularly the
word herrlich.
Herr in German means mister.
But herrlich, I learned, means something like marvelous or glorious.
So then, when I heard dämlich I thought: well, Dame means lady, so I guess dämlich
is like the feminine version of herrlich.
Like how in English handsome is often associated something that is masculine and pretty with
something that is feminine.
So I thought perhaps herrlich was for masculine things and dämlich was for, you know, like
a delicate flower petal would be dämlich.
An, no.
It turns out that dämlich just means silly or stupid.
So my question for you is: what words in any language do not mean what they look like they
should mean?
Please let me know in the comments below.
Thanks so much for watching.
And thank you for liking and commenting and subscribing to my channel.
I really hope that you enjoyed this video, and I also hope that you will enjoy the bloopers
that are coming up next.
Until next time, auf Wiedersehen!
A sunny-side up.
Egg sunny-side up.
I see a mass, beers, row, long, meter...beer.
Yeah, something went wrong there.
So I figured, you know, someone wishing some...one.
They don't really...
Feierabend!
Party evening.
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