Are German nipples the worst?

[Crackerofdoom]

I just learned the word for nipples in German is Brustwarzen

The literal translation is "breast warts"

Is this the worst direct translation or are there more out there?

IIRC the German for bra is Bustenhalter.

Not exactly the most mellifluous lingo, is it?

I love German. Not just for the wonderful literal words, but I think it is at times quite a beautiful language, not always as harsh as people make it out to be. It also can be very funny.

English can be interesting too, if you know where to look.
Flittermouse is an older English word for a bat. Like German Fledermaus mentioned earlier..
Foss was until recently a dialect word for waterfall in Yorkshire and other parts of the North - a remnant of Scandinavian settlement. You still see it in place names (like the wonderfully named village of Fangfoss).
Midwife literally means "with-woman:, from old English, where "mid" meant with and "wife" originally meant woman. (Just like the German words mit and weib).

Oh, and Swedish for wedding is Brollop, which I somehow find funny. Sounds a bit like someone about to puke after too much booze - which may be appropriate for quite a few weddings, I suppose.
We’ve been to two Brollops in Stockholm, and a half-Swedish Brollop in the U.K.

Favourite word in any language has to be Arigatameiwaku.
Apparently it's a Japanese word to describe a favour that someone does for you that you never asked for and is actually more annoying than if they hadn't, but you feel obliged to say thanks anyway....

The gaelic for spider is damhan-allaidh which means "fierce little stag".

(Guess who's been at the Duolingo? )

English can be interesting too, if you know where to look.

"English" is a collection of languages all rammed together where it was hoped nobody would see the joins. Some lovely Norse and Scandi words around. And Celtic. And Angle and Saxon. And Norman ...

And gaelic for toilet is taigh beag which means the little house - this seems to be true for lots of languages, certainly all the celtic ones.

@TeddyIsaHe we used to call them Birds Spit chocolates! That reminds me - I have a box in the kitchen!

bloke23 an Austrian relative used to ask my children for a little pussy so I think it’s Austrian German too

I love the German word for ambulance - krankenwagen

My husband speaks Afrikaans and that is a treasure trove of literal translations, I’ll hunt some out once I’ve finished wrestling the toddler to bed.

Great thread. Bringing back some fab memories. Thanks 😀

While Brustwarze is the correct word, you will find that “nipple” is totally acceptable as well.

Breastfeeding is “stillen”, so”quieting”, in my opinion “keeping the baby quite”

Wrong-end-of-the-stick words are good, such as English grapes from grapes des raisins, a 'bunch of grapes.'

And when the Czar's emissaries came to London to see the modern wonder of the railway, they took him to the new station at Vauxhall, so the Russian for station is Vagzal, (hard g please, missus.)

....And Vauxhall so-called because it was a cattle market, un veaux-halles.

What about Eierschalensollbruchstellenverursacher ?

egg-shell-should-break-place-cause

It's a modern gadget that you use to crack open a boiled egg! The name is deliberately a joke name, and people buy it often as a joke gift, especially to foreigners.

This is what it looks like: www.kaufmarkt24.de/shop/de/living/rund-um-das-ei/clack-der-eierschalensollbruchstellen-verursacher-color-edition

You can also call it a Clack.

No one has mentioned Schamhaare?

Pubes

Shame hair

No one has mentioned Schamhaare?

Or, indeed, Numberwang ?

@SuburbanFraggle "The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary."

Love that quote. I always think one of the oddest things about English is that the same word will enter the language multiple times - so a single root word ends up with multiple different English words (Pyre/fire, chief/chef, price/prise/praise/pry/prix, capital/cattle/chattel)...

Shamlippen lips of shame labia
Schamhaaren hairs of shame pubic hair

oops crossposted with beargrass

In Denmark there is a type of cough sweet, similar to Fishermans friend , called
SPUNK

Spunk comes in liquorice or wine gum varieties, nothing like fisherman's friends

I always think one of the oddest things about English is that the same word will enter the language multiple times - so a single root word ends up with multiple different English words (Pyre/fire, chief/chef, price/prise/praise/pry/prix, capital/cattle/chattel)...

But having such a constellation of words can give the scope for nuance that can transform prose - and poetry.

Apparently Churchills speeches were very carefully edited (by him) to use only Anglo-Saxon basewords - eschewing Latin, Celtic and Norman to subconsciously appeal to as wide an audience as possible.

Love this thread! I like:

Kinderkopjes - literally ‘child heads’ - word used for cobblestones in parts of Belgium.

Uitwaaien - literally ‘blow out’ - going out in windy weather

I love German! My Bavarian friends taught me the word Wampe, which means beer belly (a mark of honour for many of the beer drinking men here).

@Lamahaha. I did consider including Schamlippe but was too