this post was submitted on 21 Aug 2023
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In German it's Mäusespeck = Mouse Bacon

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[–] [email protected] 162 points 1 year ago (3 children)

In English we call it "Marshmallow".

[–] [email protected] 60 points 1 year ago (2 children)

We call it the same in Canada! That's crazy!

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 51 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What a mysterious and beautiful language.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I mean, “marshmallow” has a more interesting derivation than most of the other words I’ve seen so far.

Althaea officinalis, the marsh mallow or marshmallow, is a species of flowering plant indigenous to Europe, Western Asia and North Africa, which is used in herbalism and as an ornamental plant. A confection made from the root since ancient Egyptian times evolved into today's marshmallow treat.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 107 points 1 year ago (2 children)

In Icelandic it’s sykurpúði = sugar cushion 😄

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago

This one I can really get behind

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[–] [email protected] 75 points 1 year ago (1 children)

In Danish it's skumfidus which means foam thingie.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Literally “foam thingie”? I love that!

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Am danish can confirm, it translates to "foam thingy". Never actually thought about it before lol, though a fun name indeed

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[–] [email protected] 54 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (6 children)

I'm German and that is bullshit. Never heard of mäusespeck, everyone just calls them marshmallows and they are labeled as marshmallows in the store

EDIT: I was made aware that the Problem seems be that im not a boomer. 30 years ago, when i wasnt alive, they seemed to be called this. In my WG there are people over 30 though and they also never heard of this (hessen)

[–] [email protected] 64 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It was absolutely called Mäusespeck when I was a kid, but that's 35+ years ago.

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[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Where do you live? Mäusespeck is even in the Wikipedia article:

Im deutschsprachigen Raum ist die Süßware häufig unter der Produktbezeichnung Mausespeck oder Mäusespeck erhältlich.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I lived in BaWü and Hessen for over 30 years. Never heard of it.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

BaWü here, definitely a thing. Not too common though.

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I'm German too and we totally used Mäusespeck in the 80s/90s. I guess you're just younger, today people know what marshmallows are (and speak better English in general).

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 year ago

Classic Germans discussing about their own language

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Mäusespeck exists, but it's something slightly different. It's the sugared rhombus of the fluffy stuff, and packed in those triangle clear bags.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

Reading about it, it seems they are in fact all the same. Even the white haribo mice. TIL.

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[–] [email protected] 50 points 1 year ago (9 children)

In Finnish it's 'vaahtokarkki' which translates to foamcandy.

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[–] [email protected] 42 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (7 children)

We call it 棉花糖 in Chinese, which translates to cotton candy... Which gets confusing if we're also talking about cotton candy (the fluffy kind).

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (6 children)

In Dutch it's also marshmallows, but also commonly spek (bacon), spekjes (bacon pieces) or spekkies (in this case it's clear you're not talking about bacon).

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Now you have me curious since this is the second language, why bacon?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The original candy looked like this: https://cdn.webshopapp.com/shops/282420/files/297921342/890x820x1/confiserie-a-lancienne-spekjes-roze-wit-doos-2-kg.jpg

Which with some imagination can be similar to bits of bacon. Marshmallows are somewhat similar candy so the name is used for that too at times.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I’m pretty sure alot of languages just imported marshmallow.

I come from the german speaking part of Switzerland and I don’t think I ever heard someone actually use the word “Mäusespeck” although it certainly would he understood I think. Everybody around me calls them marshmallows.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I live in NRW and have never heard anyone call them Mäusespeck either

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (5 children)
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[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

In Polish we call them pianka, diminutive for foam

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Nein, davon weiß ich absolut nichts. Das ist regional allerhöchstens oder ein Synonym für Marshmallow.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Google translate "No, I know absolutely nothing about that. That's regional at most or a synonym for marshmallow."

You should name it sugar pillow or better we should all name it sugar pillow in our language.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Skumfidus 🇩🇰

"Foam trick" i guess, is the literal translation.

Fidus is a weird word.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (4 children)
[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ou mâche-mâlo en bon Québécois.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (8 children)

We didn't bother translating, so it's marshmallow. Sometimes written phonetically, maršmelou.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Schaumzucker (German), literally "foam sugar"

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Here in Mexico (Spanish) is known as Bombón. A quick Google search says that apparently comes from the repetition of the french word 'bon'

It is worth to mention that, despite most of the countries in Latin America speak Spanish, things have different names in different countries, even if it's the same language.

According to Wikipedia, marshmallows are also known as

nube,​ esponjita, malvavisco, fringuel, jamón o suncho

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Never heard of that in German. It's just marshmallows with a generic German accent instead. But it's cool to learn something new. Which region says that, OP?

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

In Norwegian marshmallow is just marshmallow, but if something has marshmallow bits or marshmallow like properties (like say the white stuff in a bag of Haribos) it's called "skum", which means foam

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Guimauve or Purple mistletoe for whatever reason.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Cognate with "Mallow hibiscus". It's all the swamp flower in the end. The marshmallow plant sap was originally used to make them.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

My native language is German but I lived in Spain for a long time and there they call them "nubes", clouds.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

žužu in Czech (ž as the first sound in Zhukov), but it's often called marshmallow as well (especially the iconic/most common form).

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