Anika R.
7 supporters
German Words in the English Language #1

German Words in the English Language #1

Oct 11, 2021

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:

๐—ฏ๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐—ธ๐—ฒ๐—ป - ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—ฏ๐—ฎ๐—ธ๐—ฒ

๐—ฑ๐—ฎ๐˜€ ๐—ช๐—ฎ๐˜€๐˜€๐—ฒ๐—ฟ - ๐˜„๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฟ

๐—ฑ๐—ถ๐—ฒ ๐—ฆ๐—ฐ๐—ต๐˜‚๐—น๐—ฒ - ๐˜€๐—ฐ๐—ต๐—ผ๐—ผ๐—น

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 โ€ž๐—Ÿ๐—ฒ๐—ต๐—ป๐˜„๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐˜โ€œ.)

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.

๐—•๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐˜๐˜„๐˜‚๐—ฟ๐˜€๐˜, ๐—ฝ๐˜‚๐—บ๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ป๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ธ๐—ฒ๐—น, ๐˜€๐—ฎ๐˜‚๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ธ๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐˜‚๐˜, ๐˜€๐˜๐—ผ๐—น๐—น๐—ฒ๐—ป, ๐—ฒ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ธ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ป, ๐˜€๐—ฐ๐—ต๐—ป๐—ถ๐˜๐˜‡๐—ฒ๐—น, ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ธ๐—ผ๐—ต๐—น๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ฏ๐—ถ have the same meaning in English and German.

The only outlier is โ€ždelicatessenโ€œ. The German word โ€ž๐——๐—ฒ๐—น๐—ถ๐—ธ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜€๐—ฒ๐—ปโ€œ 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 donโ€˜t eat every day but on special occasions. The other German word that can be used is โ€ž๐—™๐—ฒ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ธ๐—ผ๐˜€๐˜โ€œ which can be roughly translated as โ€žfine foodโ€œ.

In America, a โ€ž๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—น๐—ถโ€œ (the short form of โ€ždelicatessenโ€œ) 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.

Enjoy this post?

Buy Anika R. a book

More from Anika R.