Derivations of German Words
Germanisms in foreign languages may have gone through a change of meaning, appearing as false friend to the learner's eye. For instance, in Russian language, a галстук galstuk is not a scarf (German literally: "Halstuch"), but a tie; nor would a парикмахер parikmacher (German literally: "Perückenmacher") be a "wig-maker", but actually denote a hairdresser.
Likewise, in Japanese, a messer is not a knife, but a scalpel. Two more examples would be Japanese アルバイト (transliterated to "arubaito", derived from German: Arbeit and abbreviated to "baito") and リュックサック (transliterated to "ryukkusakku"; derived from German "Rucksack"; abbreviated to リュック ).
Read more about this topic: Germanism (linguistics)
Famous quotes containing the words german and/or words:
“Boys hide in lunging cubes
Crouching to explode,
Beyond the Atlantic skies,
With cheerful cries
Their barking tubes
Upon the German toad.”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)
“A torn jacket is soon mended; but hard words bruise the heart of a child.”
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (20th century)