Into the happy hunting ground

**phio_chan** · August 29, 2011 09:15 AM

Hmm, I think those words are derivative from other language indeed; I just didn't know where they come from. And you guys at Europe have some similar words with neighboring countries, right? XD

**k-dom** · August 29, 2011 03:36 PM

One of the most funny French word that comes out of German is vasistas. It's how we call the little windows that are put on the roofs. It comes from the german expression was ist das ( what is it ).
Nowadays the origin is completely lost. Even the way it is spelled has changed :-)

**Akainu** · August 29, 2011 04:10 PM

Originally Posted by phio_chan

Hmm, I think those words are derivative from other language indeed; I just didn't know where they come from. And you guys at Europe have some similar words with neighboring countries, right? XD

indeed there are similar words in many neighbouring countries. even overstepping the roman-germanic boundaries, e.g. in bavarian at least we use portemonnaie, trottoir and many more. it's long ago that french the words came here so the use is decreasing for some.

Originally Posted by k-dom

One of the most funny French word that comes out of German is vasistas. It's how we call the little windows that are put on the roofs. It comes from the german expression was ist das ( what is it ).
Nowadays the origin is completely lost. Even the way it is spelled has changed :-)

quite interesting, yh. I've heard it on arte, I think? but didn't remember the exact context. something about soldiers asking 'what is that'?

**k-dom** · August 30, 2011 05:46 AM

I've found this karambolage article, maybe this was the one you heard. The origin is unclear ; I've also read it can come from a sort of shopping window and the salesman was asking the question 'was ist das' to ask for the request.

As for phio_chan question, indeed European languages share a lot of words. In particular, I think that those which come artificially from Latin (when Latin was largely use in middle age) are similar in most of languages. In the past, English took a lot of words from French now it's the other way round, most of the technology and financial French word comes out of English. Unfortunately for me, it's not the same with German.

**Asclepius** · September 01, 2011 02:57 PM

*squeezes*
My connection doesn't like IRC. The strange thing is... i can browse pages, download things, etc.
Odd thing.
But good night, cause i know you'll sleep soon.
Gotta run to the grocery shop.