{"id":9534,"date":"2018-01-31T05:51:33","date_gmt":"2018-01-31T05:51:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/?p=9534"},"modified":"2018-01-31T05:51:33","modified_gmt":"2018-01-31T05:51:33","slug":"2-words-you-didnt-know-were-german","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/2-words-you-didnt-know-were-german\/","title":{"rendered":"2 Words You Didn’t Know Were German"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guten Tag! When you think of English words that are German in origin, a few will spring to mind immediately: Angst, Poltergeist, and Doppelg\u00e4<\/span>nger, amongst others. Yet there are some English words that you need to look a little closer at to discover that they are, in fact, German! Today I\u2019ve got two English words for you that you probably didn\u2019t know were German. Let\u2019s get started with the first word.<\/span><\/p>\n

Flak<\/h2>\n

\u201cI had to take the flak for my colleague\u2019s mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

I am sure many of us have used or heard the word flak<\/em> in a sentence like this. Flak<\/em> can be described as intense criticism, and ‘taking the flak’ is similar to ‘taking the bullet’ for someone. Perhaps not so coincidentally, the word flak has its origins in war terminology, which is where this metaphor of ‘taking the flak’ came from.<\/p>\n

So how is it German? The word flak is actually an acronym for die F<\/b>l<\/strong>uga<\/b>bwehrk<\/b>anone (sometimes seen as die F<\/b>l<\/strong>iegera<\/b>bwehrk<\/b>anone), meaning aircraft defence canon<\/em>! Soldiers would also wear what became known as a flak jacket,<\/b> a special vest that protected them against shrapnel and bullets.<\/p>\n

So next time you hear someone say they\u2019re taking the flak for something, you know where this phrase comes from, and that the word is German in origin.<\/p>\n

Abseil<\/h2>\n

\"13:13<\/a><\/p>\n

Abseiling<\/strong> is a recreational activity that involves descending a vertical drop or steep slope by climbing down a rope. If you\u2019re anything like me, you\u2019ll know abseiling from having to do it on school activity trips! And despite speaking German my entire life, this word was so \u2018English\u2019 to me that I didn\u2019t see it as German until it was pointed out to me.<\/p>\n

The word abseil is made up of two German words: ab + Seil.<\/p>\n

Ab<\/b> \u2013 down, descending
\nSeil<\/b> \u2013 rope.<\/p>\n

So the word Abseil literally means \u2018down rope\u2019<\/strong>, and comes from the German verb abseilen.<\/em><\/p>\n

Did you know that these two words were German? And can you think of any more, not-so-obvious English words that are actually German?<\/p>\n

You may also be interested in this post!<\/a><\/p>\n

Bis bald!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Guten Tag! When you think of English words that are German in origin, a few will spring to mind immediately: Angst, Poltergeist, and Doppelg\u00e4nger, amongst others. Yet there are some English words that you need to look a little closer at to discover that they are, in fact, German! Today I\u2019ve got two English words…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":9553,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[375963,95338,935,375970,95131,451644,376012,376023],"class_list":["post-9534","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-language","tag-denglisch","tag-denglish","tag-german","tag-german-and-english","tag-german-language","tag-german-words","tag-germanlanguage","tag-language"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t