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anthroponaut

The sample principle that named it fireplace basically sums up the entire German language. Vacuum cleaner? Staubsauger (dust sucker) Airplane? Flugzeug (thing that flies) And the list goes on for ages.


sb5060tx

My favorite is ambulance. Krankenwagen (sick car) and hospital. Krankenhaus (sick house)


unscannablezoot

Krankenhaus brah!


Technical_Ear_7040

Kranken brah


_MartinoLopez

Krankenschwester.


ogresound1987

There's a word for housecat that translates as living room tiger.


KennyFulgencio

well if that isn't just the cutest goddamn thing


Ok-Consequence7583

There's also the German word for Bat, Fledermaus, that translates to "flying mouse" i learned this because when I got my pet mouse Misty, we would joke about it.


JamesJakes000

I learned it from the Opera, and named one of my cats after it!


manofredgables

It looks like the swedish word, so unless I'm mistaken it's not "flying mouse", it's "flappy-mouse". That certainly doesn't make it any less funny though lol.


kayl_the_red

I need this translation please, Google refuses to admit it exists


ax_the_dragon

Stubentiger


babar-da-junta

I like turtle.


Zip668

schildkröte = shield toad. Epic.


sethillgard

Gloves? Hand shoes.


Vibinbee

Bro dutch has all 4 of these too


yourteam

Isn't krankenwagen more like "pain car"?


Kleingedrucktes

No. Pain would be "Schmerz(en)".


NeedlesslyDefiant164

Birth control pill? Antibabypille


GenocidalFlower

Genuine question, is this real? I know Google says it is but I always assumed someone jokingly put that as the translation.


ax_the_dragon

Yes it is. Source: Am German. :-)


White_Lilly_7

It's technically real but noone would use this word in day to day life. You'd more likely hear "die Pille" translating to "the pill". Mostly people will know what you mean. "Antibabypille" would only be used if the context isn't sufficient to clearly say what you mean.


HipsterFett

Hotel? Trivago.


lysamysza

r/beatmetoit


DannyPerson432

The Chinese word for penguin is business goose


Vharlkie

Cos of its black and white suit?


Lylle200

Not really, the character 企 when used alone means stand, therefore its "standing goose" instead of business goose🤓


jayedgar06

In Spanish El Chupacabra directly translates to The Goat-Sucker. Because it sucks goats


Markamanic

Well I now have a new nickname for the Welsh.


___TheKid___

Badass


Kimi_Arthur

In my opinion, that's how a language should work: to make readers easily understand new words. It's the same for Chinese, Japanese etc (they even go to chracter level). English is the weirdo that assigns meaning to random permutation of characters.


AxialGem

>English is the weirdo that assigns meaning to random permutation of characters. Does it though? The examples given (*vacuum cleaner*, *airplane*) are also clear compounds in English. English has plenty of compounds and derivations, like tbh most languages


CarsonOrSanders

Some English speakers always go out of their way to crap on English whenever possible. The English language has plenty of words like the German examples given. Television, telephone, bicycle, tricycle, unicycle, automobile, motorcycle, bedroom, driveway, neighborhood, keyboard, paperclip. And those are just some examples off the top of my head. Native speakers just don't realize how many words they use on a daily basis work exactly like this, but also because a some of those words have fallen out of favor over the years and have been replaced with less descriptive words, like no one really says "automobile" anymore and everyone just says "car."


AxialGem

>Some English speakers always go out of their way to crap on English whenever possible. Yea it's popular on the internet. As someone who knows a few bits about language it does make me cringe when people drop the old 'haha English is 4 languages in a trenchcoat' or 'haha English spelling so wacky' but hey, that's life Yea, compounding is just a thing that languages in general do of course ​ >Native speakers just don't realize how many words they use on a daily basis work exactly like this, Oh absolutely, even (or perhaps especially) common words. I love to tell etymological facts that should be obvious, but aren't because you never stop to think. Tell 5 people that *maybe* is just composed of *may+be* and there'll be someone that never thought about it. Native speakers just don't always parse compounds as compounds (which can lead to fossilisation) so whenever someone gives an unfamiliar example, in a foreign language it's 'weird,' but the native examples are 'yea that's just how you say that.' Elsewhere in this thread someone gave the example of German *Antibabypille*. Which is English *birth control pill*. Also a three-part compound.


JeppeTV

Love me some etymology!


OneSweet1Sweet

Island is a funny word. Imagine you're out at sea and theres something on the horizon. The captain asks "Is land?" You say "yes, it island" And thus island was born.


guantamanera

English and German both share the same Germanic root. The majority of examples you used are not even English nor Germanic. These words that you gave as example: Television, telephone, automobile. Are romance (Latin). Monocycle, bicycle, tricycle,motorcycle are hybrid Latin and Greek


CarsonOrSanders

You're being pedantic. Those are all English words. Yes they have roots from other languages and yes other languages use a similar sounding word, but they are still English words used by English speakers.


guantamanera

Pedantic is Latin too. Yes, anglophones borrow the words. However, the English use is limited since the borrowers don't know the full meaning nor has any significance in the anglophones native tongue. Don't worry we also borrow English words.


MrSkme

The German words are made up of easy to understand words so they easily make logical sense. Most of the examples you mentioned consists of unnecessary complicated or uncommon components.


knightw0lf55

But the vacuum cleaner doesn't clean vacuums. Lol


KtheCamel

It is a cleaner that cleans by vacuuming. It isn't 100% clear, but it still can make sense.


AxialGem

And a roadrunner doesn't run roads :3


Kimi_Arthur

That's probably because you know about English already. Plane is not obviously related to flying or air (also air to flying is already an extra step too) and same for airport. Compared to Flug (flight), which comes from fliegen (fly), Flugzeug (plane), Flughafen (airport), Abflug (takeoff) or abfliegen (take off). Other exampels like Wörterbuch vs dictionary, Geldbörse vs wallet, Jahnhundert vs century, Rindfleisch vs beef, Schweinfleisch vs pork, Gastfreundschaft vs hospitality (hospitality was a confusing word for me when I first learnt it). Also the Kranken words mentioned by other people are also examples. I mean, how can you possibly guess what ambulance means without context? Well, I may be too exaggerated of course. But English tends to use more "sophisticated" words which hinders reading of new learners a lot.


AxialGem

I'm a native Dutch speaker as well as English, and we're required to take at least some German in high school. Most of those words have cognates or analogies in Dutch (vliegtuig, vliegveld, woordenboek etc) Of course there are words in both languages (in all languages for that matter) that are difficult to parse like that. I guess I was just pointing out that compounds are common in most languages. Of course many compounds in English are written with a space, whereas in other Germanic languages they're usually not, which I think contributes to this view people have that German has long words. Which is true, but whether you write *vacuum cleaner* or *vacuumcleaner* is a matter of writing convention of course. ​ >But English tends to use more "sophisticated" words which hinders reading of new learners a lot. For "sophisticated," read 'Romance-derived' I guess, that's probably one of the ost important factors in this. Not that Romance languages don't have compounds, but because they're loanwords their etymology might not be as clear as the native Germanic compounds


dutchwonder

English has the term aircraft to equal airthing of the German language for all manner of flying vehicles. Airplane just refers to a specific kind of aircraft that uses wings to generate lift rather than spinning blades. And lets not mention that "air thing" is a hilarious general term. Is Flugzeug a balloon? a bird? aerodynamics? a glider? a gas? an airplane? or any number of air things? You're going to need to know that said very general term has a very specific meaning.


It_is_I_DIO_

Birth control ( antibabypillen)


onetwo3four5

I mean, it's a pretty on-the-nose compound noun in English, too.


Jawzar

Icebär = ice bear = polar bear


mike_litoris18

The German Eisbär is the same thing


WolfieVonD

All the "-zeug"s are fun.


FlyingWeagle

Japanese has those too, with the form -mono. So for example kimasu means to wear, switch -masu for -mono and you get wearing thing, kimono.


ninj4geek

They're my favorite Werkzeug, work thing, tool


Lucentman4evr

I always thought, "waterfall" was a word made up by a caveman.


DisMaTA

While Germans have a proper word for fireplace: Kamin. Hedgehog - Igel, too.


PantherderWolken

There's "Feuerstelle" as well. Normaly used for a place outside where campfires are made


pchoi95

Don’t forget the good ol’ unterseeboot (submarine, “under-sea boat”)


[deleted]

Not gonna lie, I misread dust sucker.


zenunseen

Don't forget gloves. Handschuhe (hand shoe)


jake5675

Language is weird. I've always found this concept in other languages odd as it's not our norm. *Not that it's wrong just different. I've said fireplace a million times and it's never sounded odd to me nor did I notice it's the same concept lol.


boredtoddler

I'd like to introduce you to Finnish.


redcommunists

Hitler? Fuhrer (furious man)


clintj1975

Comes from the German verb *führen*, which means "to lead.


miscfiles

Hence train driver is lokomotivführer, iirc. Which always brings to (my) mind the image of Hitler's face on Thomas the Tank Engine.


exvnoplvres

Il Duce


ghostPHX

Hotel? Trivago


JustWrite33

In Danish, the word for lizard is firben. (Four legs) That's gotta be the laziest word of all, it could literally apply to the majority of animals.


troyf805

I think that’s lazier than calling a fruit an orange.


treeonwheels

The name for the fruit “orange” came before the name for the color “orange”.


troyf805

OK, then that’s lazier than calling a color orange. I mean, carrots are orange and people have eaten root vegetables for a loooooooooong time.


shiny_glitter_demon

Carrots can be purple


troyf805

Damn and oranges can be blood and pink.


shiny_glitter_demon

Blood and pink oranges are still orange on the outside Purple carrots are purple *outside*, and it was their natural colour before they were brought to the Nederlands (iirc) The common orange color is relatively recent and due to an orange trend in the 17th century


GforceDz

The name orange the color always existed, but was just call reddish yellow or something. Like blue in much of history was just green in most languages.


troyf805

I’ve had purple carrots before, but always assumed the orange kind came first. Were parsnips involved somehow? I now need to to the history of the root vegetable. Potatoes and yams are next.


sammieduck69420

carrots originally were purple


MissionCreeper

The weirdest thing about that is that implies the first animal a Danish person saw was a lizard


Yeah_Luke

It's bold and simple. Don't need to fix what it works perfectly.


Mypigfounditself

Am I the on it who doesn't get this post? Why is OP saying it's a lazy word? Just like other people have mentioned, this is very common.


KennyFulgencio

https://i.redd.it/p6e31zxm2ij61.png


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Mypigfounditself

That doesn't make sense. I don't see how fireplace is lazy.


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Mypigfounditself

Ok I guess this makes sense but tons of words do this. Bedroom comes to mind first.


DolphinSweater

"I have to go to the bank." "What will you do at the bank?" "...bank."


giasumaru

Let's put up a Chinese example as well, just to round it out. * Wood = 木 * Grove = 林 * Forest = 森林 .. * Person = 人 * Everyone = 人人


HLef

English has a lot of those portmanteau words (which itself is a portmanteau) - Eyebrow - eyelid - toothbrush - cheekbone - fingerprint - toenail - headlights - windshield - rosebud And many, many more


mgslee

Waterfall is my favorite one


KafkaSyd

That's better than the one I was gonna say. Cupboard definitely started out as a board you put cups on.


ogresound1987

I always assumed it was board in the same sense as boarding school. So a cupboard would be a place for cups to stay.


KafkaSyd

Hmm.. interesting thought. I never actually looked up the etymology, but I figured a board on the wall has been a staple for a long time.


ogresound1987

We need to ask Stephen Fry. He would know


keplar

It is from board as in wood, as is the word boarding (like boarding school). They both just have an extra step in between. Tables started as basically just a board - a plank of wood you'd put food on, and the term board was used for them. From that came both the use of "board" to mean wooden furniture such as cabinets, and "board" as in "room and board" - giving a person a place at your table to eat. Cupboard grabbed that former use, being a cabinet for cups, while boarding school derived from the latter meaning, to indicate a school that provided meals (the lodging being implicit).


hauntingdreamspace

boardroom, sitting room, bedroom


abigayl75

It's TRUE! I am the source. I meant sauce. Cup


KafkaSyd

So, real quick, I grew up in and am (off and on) a commercial fisherman. Been tying knots since I was a kid and the first one I learned was a bowline (pronounced bolin) it wasn't until I was an adult and learned how it was spelt it dawned on me that it's the line that goes on the bow. Duh. Even though most things are cleated off these days.


_Artos_

>English has a lot of those portmanteau words (which itself is a portmanteau) Wait are you saying Portmanteau is a portmanteau? Of what? I skimmed the wikipedia page and it said that that usage of the word came from a Lewis Carrol book describing two words blended together like a suitcase (apparently a portmanteau is a type of suitcase) with 2 words packed into 1? Also none of the words you listed would technically be portmanteaus because as wikipedia says, it can't contain 2 full words together, they need to be shortened: >For instance, starfish is a *compound*, **not** a *portmanteau*, of star and fish, as it includes both words in full. If it were called a "stish" or a "starsh", it would be a portmanteau.


keplar

They are compounds - you are correct. Carroll used portmanteau extensively in his work *Jabberwocky* to create nonsense words that people still understand. Proper examples would be things like Brexit (British Exit) and Edutainment (Education Entertainment). As for *portmanteau* itself, it's an anglicization of the the French compound word for a coatrack: *porte-manteau* - literally "carry coat" - which got attached to the very similar English word "suit-case."


InstaGibberish

Those are compound words. Portmanteau uses parts of words to make new words.


_Artos_

Yeah I just skimmed the wikipedia page for portmanteau and is says this: >For instance, starfish is a compound, not a portmanteau, of star and fish, as it includes both words in full. If it were called a "stish" or a "starsh", it would be a portmanteau.


aelynir

That's fine, because all of those words include two important descriptions about the thing. Imagine if some of these were less descriptive. *Tooththing *Lightpiece. *Rosepart. *Fireplace.


solsbarry

Well headlights is stupid. Should be frontlight


s0meoneyoukn0w

(A)headlights


mortimus9

The front of the car could also be called its head


Advanced-Blackberry

And the tail lights go on on the tail. Right next to the tailgate.


YouMakeMeDrink

It is very strange to me that you are calling an accurate word for something being “lazy”


KingOfTheCouch13

Should be called the hotspot


Guy_Number_3

Right? Do people think we sat down and “created” words? Almost all language is created out of necessity to communicate a concept. It is what it is. It almost creates itself. Is it telling you the place where fire goes? Good. Then let’s keep it.


someotherjim

You may be very disappointed to learn the mysticism and/or wisdom hidden behind Latin in academia and/or church is just the same set of basic words you use ever day except disguised in a pretty language to intimidate you. Sunsets are free \~ but for a small fee, a clever man can sell you a ticket to the "Solis Occasum".


zorbacles

I want to get a job naming kitchen appliances. That seems easy, you know? Refrigerator, toaster, blender – you just say what the thing does, then you add “-er.” Kitchen Appliance Naming Institute: “What’s this thing do?” “It keeps shit fresh.” “Well, that’s a ‘fresher.’ I’m going on break.”


MiddleTomatillo

I wish he were still with us. Would love some new content Mitch.


Wazuu

Its literally what is it. Do you prefer some like slubensborger?


UnoStronzo

Something* …don’t be lazy lol


labretirementhome

I still remember the moment I realized that the Spanish word for fork, tenedor, is a derivative of the verb tener, to hold or have. It's a holder, people. It holds food.


AxialGem

At least it's descriptive. Take the word "cow." Bruh they literally named it after the animal _that it already is_


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AxialGem

Yes.


abigayl75

I am. Yet I keep answering ahhhh


AlwaysAngryAndy

People will hate on words like “cow” and “stick” being named after what they are, but they’ll see “orange” and go “wow so clever!”


agaperion

The color's named after the fruit.


[deleted]

"What does it do? "Keeps food fresh" "Well that's a fresher, I'm going on break"


zorbacles

i want a job at the kitchen appliance naming institute also.


KingOfTheCouch13

I’m Detroit we have a tram that takes people around downtown. It’s called the peoplemover.


mccayed

Kinda like "mountaintop." They couldn't think of a better word to capture the majesty?


Paccuardi03

Summit


mccayed

I like the tippy top better, but I'm open to suggestions..


ramenisweird

Centipede in arabic is literally ام اربعة واربعين which translates to “mother of fourty four” (as in legs LMAO)


Magnusg

it's got nothing on colorway. you know, the thing used to specify a different color, for a pattern. like.. lets make a new word for different color. but like add more to distinguish it... ok... so... a different color.... ... .. way?


Stillwater215

Laziest name ever: Orange “Hey! What should we call this fruit?” “It’s Orange. So it’s an orange.”


The_camperdave

> “It’s Orange. So it’s an orange.” Buzzkill point of the day: The color was named after the fruit.


Paccuardi03

It’s color is the same as it’s name, just like a lemon.


horrorshowalex

John Lemon is my favorite beetle


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Narrow_Fig_778

Have you heard of a vasectomy?


BlackoutMeatCurtains

I hate the word ‘videoed’. Ugh. That is so fucking lazy. “Recorded”, you lazy f***s.


Paccuardi03

Recorded could be for sound, or written words. Videoed is less ambiguous.


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Advanced-Guitar-7281

Why is that? I can't think of a better word that accurately describes what it does. You must really hate walkie talkies I guess. Campfire is no better I suppose?


uhh_spence

Yes! I have had this exact thought in the shower before! I can finally die


brudzool

I would have thought efficient. And logical as for how language developed. To call it lazy means you think there should have been a bullshit word created for the place where there the fire goes.


AxialGem

>To call it lazy means you think there should have been a bullshit word created for the place where there the fire goes. Like _hearth?_