25 August 2009

versteckter Imperativ/hidden imperative

The weekly newspaper 'Falter' is a hidden imperative in German for 'you, fold', translated approximately. And since it is Monday, I wondered if the word today could be a hidden imperative. This is a word, which has a hidden command in it. In German that is rather easy, due to the many compound nouns. There are quite some forums around with such words (see, e.g., here). However, I wondered if there are such words around in English, since I want all those many regular readers and all the people in the world to understand my blog! (Thank you, Boris!) *g*

I was surprised, that many of the direct translations work:
Korkenzieher - corkscrew, is an example with a similar meaning.
Fallobst - windfall, hey, maybe the fruits or the wind obeys, who knows?
Denkweise - mindset or mindset, in German wishful thinking, in English giving a command to the mind or a (often used?) mathematical command. I like the fact, that this is a twofold hidden imperative :) .

Well, these were pretty normal examples. It is funnier, when you command somebody with it:
Eilbote - express, yeah, i guess my ex should press some things sometimes.
Waschweib - fishwife, I really like this translation, I learned a new English word :) .

And then there are some words which cannot be translated, like:
Fliehkraft - schon wieder Physik! (Physics once again!)
SteckrĂ¼be - | hehehe ...
and of course the webpage from my last entry ...

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