Germanism (linguistics) - Derivations of German Words

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 ).

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Famous quotes containing the words german and/or words:

    I don’t want to shoot any Englishmen. I never saw one ‘til I came up here. But I suppose most of them never saw a German ‘til they came up here.
    Maxwell Anderson (1888–1959)

    Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we shall die.
    Bible: Hebrew Isaiah, 22:13.

    Almost the same words are found in 1 Corinthians 15:32, and both verses are frequently confused with Ecclesiastes 8:15: “A man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry.”