From: curd@notformail.com
On Sat, 27 Jan 2018 03:18:06 +0000, Jasen Betts wrote:
> On 2018-01-26, Cursitor Doom wrote:
>> On Thu, 25 Jan 2018 06:46:19 -0800, John Larkin wrote:
>>
>>> English is a wonderful language. We have about 300,000 words, and each
>>> has many meanings.
>>
>> But none with as many meanings as the German word 'zug' AFAIK.
>
> Collins german-english dictionary lists only 10 meanings,
>
> English "set" has thirty-something meanings and there are words with
> more.
There are some exceedingly useful words in this language. Schlag, for
example; and Zug. There are three-quarters of a column of Schlags in the
dictionary, and a column and a half of Zugs. The word Schlag means Blow,
Stroke, Dash, Hit, Shock, Clap, Slap, Time, Bar, Coin, Stamp, Kind, Sort,
Manner, Way, Apoplexy, Wood-cutting, Enclosure, Field, Forest-clearing.
This is its simple and exact meaning -- that is to say, its restricted,
its fettered meaning; but there are ways by which you can set it free, so
that it can soar away, as on the wings of the morning, and never be at
rest. You can hang any word you please to its tail, and make it mean
anything you want to. You can begin with Schlag-ader, which means artery,
and you can hang on the whole dictionary, word by word, clear through the
alphabet to Schlag-wasser, which means bilge-water -- and including
Schlag-mutter, which means mother-in-law.
Just the same with Zug. Strictly speaking, Zug means Pull, Tug, Draught,
Procession, March, Progress, Flight, Direction, Expedition, Train,
Caravan, Passage, Stroke, Touch, Line, Flourish, Trait of Character,
Feature, Lineament, Chess-move, Organ-stop, Team, Whiff, Bias, Drawer,
Propensity, Inhalation, Disposition: but that thing which it does not
mean -- when all its legitimate pennants have been hung on, has not been
discovered yet.
"One cannot overestimate the usefulness of Schlag and Zug. Armed just
with these two, and the word also, what cannot the foreigner on German
soil accomplish? The German word also is the equivalent of the English
phrase "You know," and does not mean anything at all -- in talk, though
it sometimes does in print. Every time a German opens his mouth an also
falls out; and every time he shuts it he bites one in two that was trying
to get out.
"Now, the foreigner, equipped with these three noble words, is master of
the situation. Let him talk right along, fearlessly; let him pour his
indifferent German forth, and when he lacks for a word, let him heave a
Schlag into the vacuum; all the chances are that it fits it like a plug,
but if it doesn't let him promptly heave a Zug after it; the two together
can hardly fail to bung the hole; but if, by a miracle, they should fail,
let him simply say also! and this will give him a moment's chance to
think of the needful word. In Germany, when you load your conversational
gun it is always best to throw in a Schlag or two and a Zug or two,
because it doesn't make any difference how much the rest of the charge
may scatter, you are bound to bag something with them. Then you blandly
say also, and load up again. Nothing gives such an air of grace and
elegance and unconstraint to a German or an English conversation as to
scatter it full of "Also's" or "You knows.""
From Mark Twain's essay, The Awful German Language:
https://www.cs.utah.edu/~gback/awfgrmlg.html
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--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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