Friday 28 April 2017

Alphabet Club Catch Up - Q

Another try to catch up with TAC...Q is a difficult letter in all languages, I suppose, and German is no different, so I will have to do a bit of shoehorning. Take this WIP of Cut Tru Cottage (hopefully soon to be finished!). See that smoke coming out on the right? One word so say 'smoke' in German is 'Rauch' (probably the more common one), but you can also say 'Qualm'!


My word for this month letter is Quacksalber. A Quacksalber is a person who claimes to be able to cure diseases without actually being able to - I think the English equivalent would be a snake oil salesman. As I just learned, Quacksalber comes from 'kwaken/quacken' - today that is the sound a duck makes, but in older German it also meant 'to boast' - and 'salben', 'to anoint'. 

7 comments:

Linda said...

I love the cottage Leonore. I need to get back to some of my cut thrus.

Linda

Magical Mystery said...

They use Quack in English too - for the same thing. The Dutch use kwaksalver which is very close to the German (as so often the older words are). your cut through looks great - now get on and finish it!

Jo who can't think of a clever nickname said...

Yes, we say "Quack" as slang for a bad doctor! Nice to know where it comes from.
Great work on the smoking cottage and your smoking needles!

Pamela said...

Great post for a difficult letter. Love the language lesson!

Bethan said...

I love the cottage - and a very interesting post for the letter Q. I wonder if the term Quack for doctor came from Quacksalber x

Bekah said...

I am always interested in your translations and a special word in each letter.

Brigitte said...

Ich hatte dir ja schon gesagt, dass du mich einholen würdest, lach. Tolles Wort wieder - und eine tolle Stickerei.