Comments on: Top 10 Loanwords

By: hardoperatic

hardoperatic — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 22:23:02 +0000

Nope, I learned Schadenfreude from Avenue Q as well. And Ennui from Glee. :\

Sigh.

By: livesonavenueq

livesonavenueq — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:29:17 +0000

Am I the only one who learned the meaning of Schadenfreude from Avenue Q?

By: Plante

Plante — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 04:02:00 +0000

Number 10 (ennui) is great. I happen to be french, and for the exact meaning of the english “ennui”, we use the english word “spleen”… As “ennui” for us is just about the same than “boredom”.

By: brummsel

brummsel — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 22:46:48 +0000

@fgh: Yes, you are right. The difference between english and germany imho is the following: German has 1000 words for one thing. One word in english can mean 1000 things.

By: brummsel

brummsel — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 22:42:36 +0000

Very funny for me who I am german.
I didn’t new that so many german words are used by english speaking people. I only was aware of “Rucksack” and “Kindergarten”.
Even much funnier is how you obviously pronounce those words. Very strange! We pronounce them slightly different

Somebody in the beginning said, that german is beautiful language. I really have to agree, although I thought other nations are not that much into german. But to me english is the great and exciting language. I love it so much.

By: amerileira

amerileira — Mon, 11 May 2009 03:51:41 +0000

Ok, I’m wending my way through these lists & having a ball (and neglecting my housework shamefully). I just have to comment on #6. Just as there are many accents in English (in the US, cf. Cajun vs. Boston…), there are in Portuguese. In the north of Brazil, we would say “sow-DAH-gee,” and usually “sow-DAH-gees.” There is really no English equivalent for it & I have wished for one for years. It is SUCH a great word for what it expresses!

By: azzteke

azzteke — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 15:50:49 +0000

@oouchan

“ad hominem”
no problem – pronounced: , “utt” as in “cut”.
“hominem” like “eminem” – you know.

Klaus

By: oouchan

oouchan — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 15:14:50 +0000

Ad Hominem….I finally get to see it and how it’s pronounced. Kept seeing it in lists around here, but didn’t know how to pronounce it. This was a cool list.

By: fgh

fgh — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 03:00:38 +0000

German seems to have a lot of good words for describing concepts. They also have words for bureaucratic red tape designed to keep you form getting a reward or prize (Papierkrieg, which translates to “paper war”), a present husbands buy for their wives when they’ve done something bad (Drachenfutter, meaning “dragon feed”), and a word for weight gained from overeating because one is worried about something (Kummerspeck, or “grief bacon”).

By: azzteke

azzteke — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 15:04:49 +0000

Zeitgeist:
The given pronunciation “zight-gihst”
is absolute bullshit.

The correct pronunciation is “TSight-gighst” (“ei” spoken as in “high”, “Z” => “TS”).
English speaking people will never learn it!