What does gesundheit mean?

[Johnny]

Did I spell it right?

What does gesundheit mean?

And what about Schwarzenegger?

Thanks.

[Henning Schlottmann]

Johnny wrote:
>
> Did I spell it right?
>
> What does gesundheit mean?

Gesundheit is health as any dictionary would have told you. It is common
to say "Gesundheit!" as a good wish to someone who sneezes.

> And what about Schwarzenegger?

Schwarzenegger is not a word as such, it is a name. Schwarz is black,
and Egge means harrow. So someone called Schwazenegger is probably a
decendant from farmers who lived in a place famous for its black soil.

There are pretty good english-german dictionaries out there in the
online world. Try http://dict.leo.org.

Ciao Henning

[Johnny]

Aloha, Henning,

Thank you for such a polite and informative answer.

Is there a separate language called Austrian?

--Johnny

"Henning Schlottmann" <h.schl...@gmx.net> wrote in message
news:2sin1vF...@uni-berlin.de...

[Michael Baumgartner]

"Johnny" <john...@kc.rr.com> schrieb:

>
> Thank you for such a polite and informative answer.
>
> Is there a separate language called Austrian?

No, Austrians speak and write German. There are several words that are
specifically Austrian, but the differences between the written
languages in Austria and Germany are smaller than those between
American and British English, especially since the spelling is the
same.
Dialects are a different matter, though. Most Austrians speak dialects
that are close to that of Bavaria (in southern Germany). For people
from the north or west of Germany, they can be somewhat hard to
understand.

Besides, I'm not so convinced that the "egger" part in
Schwarzenegger's name is derived from "Egge". "Äcker" (fields) seems a
much more likely explanation to me. I do agree, however, that the name
probably refers to a place with rich, black soil.

Michael

[Sebastian Koppehel]

"Johnny" <john...@kc.rr.com> wrote:

> Is there a separate language called Austrian?

No! Lookie here (to the right):

http://members.aon.at/inlinguagraz/Html/Courses_E.htm

By the way, I think some English speakers might be puzzled that Germans
(and Austrians as well) should say "Health!" after someone sneezed. The
translations "good health" or "well-being" might be more understandable.
(And if you still think it's funny - "Bless you!" is not the most
logical thing to say either.)

- Sebastian

--
Angesichts des desolaten Ausrüstungszustands unserer Bundeswehr [...]
werden Schröder und Scharping auf groteske Weise zu den letzten
Verfechtern des Satzes: Frieden schaffen ohne Waffen.
(Edmund Stoiber)

[FB]

On Wed, 06 Oct 2004 19:07:08 +0200, Henning Schlottmann wrote:

> Gesundheit is health as any dictionary would have told you. It is common
> to say "Gesundheit!" as a good wish to someone who sneezes.

Americans use it, don't they? Whether only as an attempt at humour or
seriously as well, I don't know.

Bye, FB
--
"What meaning of this, Mitter Twain?". "I will tell you, Mr Wang, if you
can tell me why a man who possesses one of the most brilliant minds of this
century can't say his prepositions or articles".
(Murder by Death)

[Einde O'Callaghan]

FB wrote:
> On Wed, 06 Oct 2004 19:07:08 +0200, Henning Schlottmann wrote:
>
>
>>Gesundheit is health as any dictionary would have told you. It is common
>>to say "Gesundheit!" as a good wish to someone who sneezes.
>
>
> Americans use it, don't they? Whether only as an attempt at humour or
> seriously as well, I don't know.
>

I think for most Americans who use it when someone sneezes it's simply
the polite thing to say when somebody sneezes. It was probably adopted
from Yiddish, although it could also have come from the fairly large
number of German-speaking immigrants.

Gruß, Einde O'Callaghan

[Reinhold (Rey) Aman]

Einde O'Callaghan wrote:

[...]

> I think for most Americans who use it when someone sneezes it's simply
> the polite thing to say when somebody sneezes. It was probably adopted
> from Yiddish,

No. In Yiddish, "die Gesundheit" (health) is "dos gezunt."

> although it could also have come from the fairly
> large number of German-speaking immigrants.

Yes. It's definitely from the German-speaking immigrants.

--
Reinhold (Rey) Aman
Santa Rosa, CA 95402
USA

[Matthew Saxon]

"Johnny" <john...@kc.rr.com> wrote in message
news:GcU8d.97462$nA6....@twister.rdc-kc.rr.com...

I once heard Arnold on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson translate his
last name as black plowman.

Johnny's response: "How do the Kennedy's feel about having a black plowman
in the family?"

tschuss,

Moosebreath

[DD]

actually the term derived from the fact that when you sneezed, your heart would skip a beat. In the old days, that would
have been cause for alarm of some type due to the risk of damaging your health. so...
someone would say "Gesundheit" or... Health to you. That is what my old Oma told me.

dd

[val189]

FB <fam.baldu...@tin.it> wrote in message

> Americans use it, don't they? Whether only as an attempt at humour or
> seriously as well, I don't know.

Some just wish to say something other than "God bless you", however,
many mispronounce it and many have no idea of the meaning.

Here's another explanation of the "bless you" phrase. Supposedly,
during a sneeze, one is not breathing, hence, closer to death. The
phrase reminds one of his mortality.