moxnix
Marjorie Neumann
At least that's how my daughter spells it phonetically. What does it
mean? What is its derivation? Can anyone help? All insights gratefully
accepted.
Marjorie Neumann
mne...@american.edu
Ralph M Jones
Marjorie Neumann wrote:
>
> At least that's how my daughter spells it phonetically. What does it
> mean? What is its derivation? Can anyone help? All insights gratefully
> accepted.
It's German bastardized by American GIs. It means "makes no difference",
"forget it" or "it doesn't matter". The "mox" part approximates the
German pronunciation "machs" (sp??). The "nix" part is from "nicht".
--
There never was a horse that couldn't be rode
Nor a man that couldn't be throwed.
- Old Rodeo Saying
DH in Denver
Marjorie Neumann wrote:
>
> At least that's how my daughter spells it phonetically. What does it
> mean? What is its derivation? Can anyone help? All insights gratefully
> accepted.
>
> mne...@american.edu
machts=makes nichts=nothing i.e., makes no difference
==============================>>> <<<=============================
Before replying, delete the X in my address.
My home page:
http://www.geocities.com/vienna/7034
I finally finished the jigsaw puzzle I've been working on, and
it only took me three months!!!
Heck . . . it said "2 to 4 years" on the box.
Gary
>At least that's how my daughter spells it phonetically. What does it
>mean? What is its derivation? Can anyone help? All insights gratefully
>accepted.
>
>Marjorie Neumann
>mne...@american.edu
It has been years since I have heard mox nix used. We used it to mean
that it makes no difference. Which movie do you want to see? Mox nix
or sometimes, mox nix to me. I believe that it comes from the German
machts nichts. However, I don't speak German so both the spelling and
the grammar may be wrong.
Gary
email: Replace x with g
John D Salt
In article <1bnbwAAK...@gvass.demon.co.uk>,
Garry J. Vass <Ga...@gvass.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> [snips]
>From the modern day German, "machts nichts" (which, oddly enough is
>pronounced "mox-nix"), a shortening of "Es machts nichts", meaning "It
>makes nothing". French = Ca fait rien. English = Don't mention it.
^^^^^^^^^^^^
...or, as charmingly anglicised by Arnold Silcock at least, "San fairy-ann".
[I think the anglicisation includes the "ne", normally dropped in
informal French].
If anyone else has any examples of this kind of thing, please post them
toot sweet.
Mercy buckets.
John.
--
John D Salt Dept of IS & Computing,| A bit beyond perception's reach
Brunel U, Uxbridge, Middx UB8 3PH | I sometimes believe I see
Disclaimers: I speak only for me. | That life is two locked boxes, each
Launcher may train without warning.| Containing the other's key.
Albert Marshall
Gary <xbm...@erols.com> wrote
of "san fairy"?
--
Albert Marshall
Executive French
Language Training for Businesses in Kent
01634 400902
Lloyd Zusman
On Mon, 04 Aug 1997 18:14:15 -0400, Marjorie Neumann <mne...@american.edu> wrote:
> At least that's how my daughter spells it phonetically. What does it
> mean? What is its derivation? Can anyone help? All insights gratefully
> accepted.
It's a transliteration of the German "machts nichts", which comes from
the German "Das machts nichts". Literally, it means "That makes [or
does] nothing", but it's used colloquially to mean "It doesn't
matter", or "Big deal!", or <shrug>, or "So what?", or "Who gives a
____?" [fill in the blank].
Since Yiddish evolved from Old High German ("Althochdeutsch"), the
"machts nichts" expression is also widely used among Yiddish speakers,
with sundry variations in pronunciation. The "moxnix" way of saying
it seems to be a fairly good, English-ized attempt at the German
pronunciation.
--
Lloyd Zusman
l...@asfast.com
Dr. Peter Kittel
In article <1bnbwAAK...@gvass.demon.co.uk> "Garry J. Vass" <Ga...@gvass.demon.co.uk> writes:
>In article <33E654...@american.edu>, Marjorie Neumann
><mne...@american.edu> writes
>>
>>At least that's how my daughter spells it phonetically. What does it
>>mean? What is its derivation? Can anyone help? All insights gratefully
>>accepted.
>
>pronounced "mox-nix"), a shortening of "Es machts nichts", meaning "It
Funny. All replies claim it were "Es machts nichts" in German. But that's
wrong, it is "(es) macht nichts" without an "s" at the end of "macht"!
Yet there are southern German dialects where they sometimes add an "s",
and Americans were stationed majorly there in the south, so that this
dialectal use may have been copied.
But that the word "nichts" is used in the short form of "nix" is indeed
very common all over Germany.
--
Best Regards, Dr. Peter Kittel // http://www.pios.de of PIOS
Private Site in Frankfurt, Germany \X/ office: pet...@pios.de
Back from vacation, did anything happen?
This account will soon change!
Daan Sandee
In article <slrn5ujh7...@ljz.asfast.net> l...@asfast.com (Lloyd Zusman) writes:
>>
>> Funny. All replies claim it were "Es machts nichts" in German. But that's
>> wrong, it is "(es) macht nichts" without an "s" at the end of "macht"!
>
>coming back to me: I clearly remember learning that "machts nichts" is
>short for "Das machts nichts", which is itself a shortened form of
>"Das macht es nichts" ("That makes it nothing").
>
>I suppose it's also short for "Dies macht es nichts", "Es macht es
>nichts", etc.
Nice try, but none of the phrases you proffer is proper German (at least
the German spoken by Germans, as opposed to the German spoken by GIs.)
The standard phrase is "Macht nichts", although "Es macht nichts" or
"Das macht nichts" are idiomatically and grammatically correct. I
must assume the first x is "moxnix" is a GI embellishment.
Daan Sandee san...@cmns.think.com
Burlington, MA
Lloyd Zusman
I'm disappointed in my High School German textbook, which definitely
contained the "Das macht es nichts" usage. I wonder what other things
contained in that book were incorrect.
--
Lloyd Zusman
l...@asfast.com
Ben Walsh
Silver plate?
> And the ever-popular "come on out in the alley, you!" is a greeting I
> remember from elementary school French class . . . .
>
> Stephanie M in HK (contributions of mangled Cantonese welcomed for my
> next book . . .)(and my husband's Bavarian family really do say
> 'moxnix,' just to return to the original thread)
Daan Sandee
In article <slrn5ul2c...@ljz.asfast.net> l...@asfast.com (Lloyd Zusman) writes:
>>
>> Nice try, but none of the phrases you proffer is proper German (at least
>> the German spoken by Germans, as opposed to the German spoken by GIs.)
>> The standard phrase is "Macht nichts", although "Es macht nichts" or
>> "Das macht nichts" are idiomatically and grammatically correct. I
>> must assume the first x is "moxnix" is a GI embellishment.
>
>I'm disappointed in my High School German textbook, which definitely
>contained the "Das macht es nichts" usage. I wonder what other things
>contained in that book were incorrect.
No way. Neither grammatically nor idiomatically correct. Sounds the
textbook was trying to invent an etymology to an American expression.
Several people here have offered the "*machts nichts" explanation. All
of them were Americans. They must have been using the same textbook.
Daan Sandee
Burlington, MA Use this email address: sandee (at) cmns . think . com
Dr. Peter Kittel
>> In article <1bnbwAAK...@gvass.demon.co.uk> "Garry J. Vass" <Ga...@gvass.demon.co.uk> writes:
>> >In article <33E654...@american.edu>, Marjorie Neumann
>> ><mne...@american.edu> writes
>> >>
>> >>At least that's how my daughter spells it phonetically. What does it
>> >>mean? What is its derivation? Can anyone help? All insights gratefully
>> >>accepted.
>> >
>> >From the modern day German, "machts nichts" (which, oddly enough is
>> >pronounced "mox-nix"), a shortening of "Es machts nichts", meaning "It
>> >makes nothing". French = Ca fait rein. English = Don't mention it.
>>
>> wrong, it is "(es) macht nichts" without an "s" at the end of "macht"!
Sorry to evolve this into a German lesson in a.u.e, but:
>Well, my claim was that it's "Das machts nichts".
Sorry, that's wrong, too, superfluous "s" at "macht".
> And now this is all
>coming back to me: I clearly remember learning that "machts nichts" is
>short for "Das machts nichts",
Also wrong, superfluous "s".
> which is itself a shortened form of
>"Das macht es nichts" ("That makes it nothing").
Also wrong, superfluous "es". Sorry, I can't help you.
>I suppose it's also short for "Dies macht es nichts", "Es macht es
>nichts", etc.
All the same, superfluous "es". As I said, there are some regional
dialects who insert some "s" or a full "es" here and there, but that's
a) very regional, and b) plainly wrong in standard German. The correct
phrases are "es macht nichts", "das macht nichts", all meaning "it
doesn't matter".
"Es/Das/Dies macht es nicht" (watch for missing "s" at the end,
because it means "not" and not "nothing" like in the other cases!)
is possible, but means something completely different. It means
"It/That/This doesn't achieve it", but that's also more slang than
standard language.
TsuiDF
Polar wrote:
<snip>
> >
> >To answer the phone in Japanese: "Don't touch my moustache."
> >
> That's a far cry from "moshi, moshi", which is what I think I hear
> when my Japanese friends get on the phone.
Tryptan Felle
Does anyone happen to know whether "nichts" is a genitive construction
in German? It looks like it might be "nicht" + "-s" and thus would be
akin to the French 'de rien', the Spanish 'de nada', and the Russian
'nichevo.'
-- Tryptan Felle
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"Taxation without representation is tyranny."
* * * Stop Congressional elimination of democracy in D.C. * * *
Support voting rights for the District of Columbia
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
earle jones
>Polar wrote:
><snip>
>> >
>> >To answer the phone in Japanese: "Don't touch my moustache."
>> >
>> That's a far cry from "moshi, moshi", which is what I think I hear
>> when my Japanese friends get on the phone.
--
Nope! The "Don't touch my moustache" means "You're welcome" and follows
"Arigato gozaimasu" or "Thank you very much".
Tana kara bota mochi.
earle
--
__
__/\_\
/\_\/_/
\/_/\_\ earle
\/_/ jones
Robin or David
Tryptan Felle wrote:
>
> Does anyone happen to know whether "nichts" is a genitive construction
> in German? It looks like it might be "nicht" + "-s" and thus would be
> akin to the French 'de rien', the Spanish 'de nada', and the Russian
> 'nichevo.'
>
etymological) may not go back far enough in the language to be
authoritative, but suggests that the root "'niht' (aus 'niwiht,
niowiht')" can take both the dative -e and genitive -s markers: "1. als
Subst. n. mit oder ohne gen.: nichts, verstaerkt 'nihtes niht'; 'mit
nihte,' durch nichts, auf keine Weise." (A. Bachmann,
Mittelhochdeutsches Lesebuch, 1967).
Dave
Gary Williams, Business Services Accounting
In article <slrn5ul2c...@ljz.asfast.net>, l...@asfast.com (Lloyd Zusman)
writes:
> I'm disappointed in my High School German textbook, which definitely
> contained the "Das macht es nichts" usage. I wonder what other things
> contained in that book were incorrect.
My daughter, who spent a year in Austria (if Austrian German counts), reports
that she is aware of two equivalent expressions in common use: "Es macht
nicht" and "Das macht es nicht". [I don't believe she put an -s on "nicht",
but I may simply have misunderstood.] Her theory as to how the -cht became in
English -x was that in speech the "es" of "Das macht es nicht" might be
contracted to "Das macht's nicht".
If the original poster is still with us, I am curious because my daughter (20
years old) had never heard "machts nichts" in America. I thought it was a
rather common slangy expression; but on reflection realize that the people I
heard use it were all in my Army Reserve unit, so the theory that it is GI
German seems sound.
So I wonder if the original poster would do a little research on how "moxnix"
came into his daughter's vocabulary. She been dating GIs?
Gary Williams
WILL...@AHECAS.AHEC.EDU
Robert Lieblich
TsuiDF wrote:
>
> Polar wrote:
> <snip>
> > >
> > >To answer the phone in Japanese: "Don't touch my moustache."
> > >
> > That's a far cry from "moshi, moshi", which is what I think I hear
> > when my Japanese friends get on the phone.
>
> remember from elementary school French class . . . .
From 1986:
Knock, knock.
Who's there?
Comet Halley.
Comet Halley who?
Tres bien, merci.
Bob Lieblich <lieb...@erols.com> (not part of the joke)
Lee Lester
During the Allied occupation of Austria, I heard both US and UK troops
pronounce the expression as 'muxnix,' said as one word with that
pronunciation. It obviously stemmed from the German 'Es machts nichts.'