Thursday 8 June 2017

Alphabet Club Catch Up - U

I'm getting so close to catching up now - maybe I will be able to post on time next month!

I didn't find any actual U-pictures of stitching, so instead we're going to have something 'unfinished' this week - my 'Fans of the Far East', were I haven't quite managed to finish one of three fans yet! I also post this to remind you were I was on it, since I am planning to take it along for my weekend stitching this week (although the picture is not quite up to date either, but the most recent one I have).


Finding an appropriate word today was a bit more difficult, but I finally settled on 'unterbuttern'. To translate this literally is a little more difficult - 'unter' is 'under' or 'down', and 'butter' is, of course, just 'butter' as well, but what I always read it as was 'to put butter under someone'. I was wrong to think so, though! The colloquial meaning of 'unterbuttern' is to dominate or suppress someone - in the sense that you let them do stuff for you or don't let them say anything in a conversation. After a little google search I found out it actually comes from the process of butter making - when beating the cream, a lump of butter is formed, that has to be pushed down 'under' the remaining cream again and again until you are done. So it's more a 'to push the butter down' than 'to put butter under somebody'!

7 comments:

Barb said...

Your piece is so pretty. I hope you finish it.

Pamela said...

Interesting word and gorgeous project!

Linda said...

Love your fan and fun word Leonore.

Linda

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

The fans are lovely and the new word is most unusual!

Mii Stitch said...

Beautiful work on the fan design.

Tiffstitch said...

The fan is looking fantastic, a great choice for 'U'. And what an interesting word, similar to the English world "belittling" but more so?

Brigitte said...

So, jetzt hast du's fast geschafft, und die Aufholjagd hat sich gelohnt. Wieder ein tolles Wort, das du gefunden hast.