this post was submitted on 04 Dec 2024
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Microblog Memes

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 2 weeks 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 2 weeks 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 2 weeks 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 2 weeks ago (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago
[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks 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 2 weeks ago
[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 weeks 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 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks 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 2 weeks ago (1 children)

It sounds like an Orc saying “zug.”

“Me take TPS report zug to work zug.”

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

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

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 weeks 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 2 weeks ago

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

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks 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 2 weeks ago

Wash Rat in French

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

hurr hurr twat bear

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

de wasbeer im de kukstooel

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

Can confirm, Waschbär in German.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago

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

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

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

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 weeks 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 2 weeks ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks 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 2 weeks 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 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

It seems like tape is more magical than Velcro.

edit: s/that/than/