this post was submitted on 04 Dec 2024
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Microblog Memes

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 month ago (1 children)

In Romanian, "prince charming" literally translates to "pretty fetus".

In my experience, Romanians tend to react to being confronted with this fact by going quiet for a while and then trying to tell you that this is not strictly incorrect but there's more to it, and then they try to explain it away and then they go quiet again.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Just did it to a Romanian friend and I could just see the writing dots on the screen for a while. Success

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

I swear, it's the exact same reaction every time. It's amazing, like a culture-wide Manchurian Candidate activation code.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 month ago (2 children)

This says it's actually "tip-toe goose" which . . . also good.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

企业 seems to mean "business / company / corpo / firm" and my dictionary says 企 is also an abbreviation for it. So I guess that's how we get to the OP's joke. I'm guessing 鹅企 would be read "Goose Corp." then ?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago
[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago (5 children)

"Hippo" in German translates as "The horse of the Nile". It's such a fun language, with its word combinations.

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

Got a thing without name? I present "-Zeug"!

  • Fly thing? Flugzeug
  • Fire thing? Feuerzeug
  • Thing you need for work? Werkzeug
  • The things that you punch to make sounds? Schlagzeug
  • Unidentified things? Zeug

I love German.

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

It sounds like an Orc saying “zug.”

“Me take TPS report zug to work zug.”

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

No, a Zug ist a train. And it's probably late

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

Basically the same in English-- the etymology is PIE through Greek and Latin meaning river horse. Historians call horse/chariot stadiums from ancient Greece hippodromes.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

Still called river horse in Swedish (flodhäst), not exclusive to the Nile though.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Lemmy told me that raccoon in German literally translates as "washing bear" and I still think about that at least once a week

[–] undefinedValue 3 points 1 month ago

Wash Rat in French

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Its true for Dutch, so I'm sure it's true for German as well, in Dutch it's called a wasbeer

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

hurr hurr twat bear

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

de wasbeer im de kukstooel

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

Can confirm, Waschbär in German.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

It's an amazing language. My favorite is the word for contraceptive pills: antibabypille!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Wait till you learn what “airplane”, “lighter”, and “tool” are.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago

I have this with the Spanish translation of toes. Dedos de los pies. The literal translation would be fingers of the foot.

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

In Japanese a thermos bottle is called 魔法瓶/Mahoubin, which literally translated means magic bottle.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

They love their magic stuff in Japan. They call velcro "magic tape".

One of my favorites from Japanese is that they call mons pubis the "shame/embarassed hill" (恥丘), because of course they have to be weird about it.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

It's beyond weird, you see this in lots of places where the patriarchy influenced society and language to this point of control and inequality between the sexes. Only in recent years where i live have these terms been changed in favor of a more equal view on genders with language that reflects that to go with it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

It seems like tape is more magical than Velcro.

edit: s/that/than/