Welcome to my new series of German words in the (American) English language.

Because English and German are both Germanic languages there are many cognates; meaning that words in German and English are related and you can guess the meaning.

Examples are:

𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗲𝗻 - 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗮𝗸𝗲

𝗱𝗮𝘀 𝗪𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗲𝗿 - 𝘄𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿

𝗱𝗶𝗲 𝗦𝗰𝗵𝘂𝗹𝗲 - 𝘀𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗼𝗹

However, there are words in English that have been taken directly from German and kept the German spelling. We call these words loanwords (which interestingly is a direct translation of the German „𝗟𝗲𝗵𝗻𝘄𝗼𝗿𝘁“.)

The words I chose for today are words about food since it is #foodfriday . In German these words would be capitalized because they are nouns.

𝗕𝗿𝗮𝘁𝘄𝘂𝗿𝘀𝘁, 𝗽𝘂𝗺𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗸𝗲𝗹, 𝘀𝗮𝘂𝗲𝗿𝗸𝗿𝗮𝘂𝘁, 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻, 𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗼𝗿𝗻, 𝘀𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘇𝗲𝗹, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗸𝗼𝗵𝗹𝗿𝗮𝗯𝗶 have the same meaning in English and German.

The only outlier is „delicatessen“. The German word „𝗗𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗲𝗻“ is itself a loan word from French which comes from Italian and Latin. It refers to expensive and exquisite food like caviar, oysters, exotic fruits, high quality salads, etc. It is food you don‘t eat every day but on special occasions. The other German word that can be used is „𝗙𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗼𝘀𝘁“ which can be roughly translated as „fine food“.

In America, a „𝗱𝗲𝗹𝗶“ (the short form of „delicatessen“) has a broader meaning and can be found as stand alone small store or as a section in a grocery store. You can buy cold cuts there, prepared sandwiches, and salads. Depending on the region and the ethnicity of the owner and the customers you can finds delis catering to the Italian, Greek, or Jewish community.

The American equivalent to a German Delikatessen store would be a gourmet food store.