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What's a word or concept in your language that does not translate very well to English? (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 day ago by to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world
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Asking non-native English speakers.

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[–] 21 points 1 day ago (13 children)

Guten Appetit! (German term equivalent to "cheers" for drinking - but for eating.)

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  • [–] 17 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (9 children)

    That one is really interesting, because a lot of languages has it, from guten apetit, through dobrou chuť to itadakimasu. But english was out of school that day I suppose.

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  • [–] 28 points 1 day ago (5 children)

    English stole 'Bon Apetit" from French fair and square!

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  • [–] 8 points 1 day ago (4 children)

    As English often does - if it makes sense in another language and is easy for English speakers to understand the context it's used, they're quite happy stealing it. Especially French.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 day ago (1 child)

    That's because English isn't a language, it's three other languages in a trenchcoat, stealing stuff from every other language.

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  • [–] 3 points 19 hours ago

    Celtic, western Germanic (Angles, Saxons, Frisian), Latin, northern Germanic (Danish, Norse), and in 1066 finally French (which is a mixing bowl in its own right). The trenchcoat is way more crowded than you think.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

    itsdakomasu

    Did you mean itadakimasu?

    Because that is what you say in Japanese when you start eating but interestingly it doesn't mean "Guten Appetit" (basically "have a nice meal") but "I am (thankfully) going to receive (a nice meal)". While "Guten Appetit" is about others who are eating alongside you, "itadakimasu" is about the speaker.

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  • [–] 1 point 6 hours ago (1 child)

    Wasn't itadakimasu religious in origin? Making it something more like the prayer before the food that English-speaking Christians do - "Bless us, O Lord, and these thy gifts, which we are about to receive..."?

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  • [–] 1 point 6 hours ago

    I wouldn't know. The verb is itadaku which is a humble form of the verb morau, meaning "to receive". The imasu part is basically just polite grammar. If there is anything religious about it, it's obscure.

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