Wordsmith Talk		About Us | What's New | Search | Site Map | Contact Us

Active Topics

Active Posts

Unanswered Posts

Search

Advanced

You are not logged in. [Log In] Wordsmith Talk » Forums » (Old) Weekly themes. (have been consolidated into a single forum above) » Loanwords from German » OFFESKEITEN Register User    Forum List        Calendar     Active Topics     Search     FAQ

Page 1 of 2 1 2 > Topic Options #171476 - 11/20/07 12:04 PM OFFESKEITEN R. Eastcourt journeyman Registered: 11/01/07 Posts: 99 Loc: Hungarian Gypsy My dear, dead, neighbor used this word(adjective) to describe an ultra-conservative, boorish, gluttonous, self-centered, lazy, neighbor, of certain European descent. Is this a real word or did Jack just spit out pidgion German sounds? Phonetically it sounded: off'-ish-kiten......(add a country here) Top #171494 - 11/20/07 03:29 PM Re: OFFESKEITEN [Re: R. Eastcourt] BranShea Carpal Tunnel Registered: 06/23/06 Posts: 3387 Loc: Netherlands, the Hague You doubled the original post, maybe you did not notice. Aufschiessen, opschieten, means :" move on or hurry up". Could be sort of German or Dutch you heard. It's usually written in small fonts or characters. Top #171536 - 11/23/07 12:35 AM Re: OFFESKEITEN [Re: BranShea] R. Eastcourt journeyman Registered: 11/01/07 Posts: 99 Loc: Hungarian Gypsy Originally Posted By: BranShea You doubled the original post, maybe you did not notice. Aufschiessen, opschieten, means :" move on or hurry up". Could be sort of German or Dutch you heard. It's usually written in small fonts or characters. Hmmmm. I'm pretty sure it was an adjective, probably Dutch. Top #171849 - 12/03/07 06:59 AM Re: OFFESKEITEN [Re: R. Eastcourt] Scriveyn stranger Registered: 02/22/07 Posts: 5 Loc: Here Be Dragons Sounds more Dutch than German to me. BranShea's post gave me the idea that it might mean "upstart". Just a guess though. Top #171850 - 12/03/07 07:23 AM Re: OFFESKEITEN [Re: Scriveyn] BranShea Carpal Tunnel Registered: 06/23/06 Posts: 3387 Loc: Netherlands, the Hague The word is too far off any real Dutch or German word to make anything out of it, Scriveyn. It comes closest to 'opschieten ' which means, as said to move on or to hurry up. Top #174743 - 03/14/08 09:39 PM Re: OFFESKEITEN [Re: BranShea] twosleepy old hand Registered: 02/28/08 Posts: 724 Loc: western NY I always thought "scheisse" was a "bad" word in German; one of those scatological ones... The online translator came up with "up-sh*t" for "aufscheissen". Not sure what that means, but it looks "bad" to me! If this was an insult, that would make sense... Top #174753 - 03/15/08 10:22 AM Re: OFFESKEITEN [Re: twosleepy] zmjezhd Pooh-Bah Registered: 08/13/05 Posts: 2270 Loc: R'lyeh a "bad" word German schießen 'to shoot', aufschießen 'to coil up (a rope)', and scheißen 'to shit'. Top #174757 - 03/15/08 12:05 PM Re: OFFESKEITEN [Re: zmjezhd] tsuwm Carpal Tunnel Registered: 04/03/00 Posts: 9400 Loc: this too shall pass i.e., what a difference an 'ei' makes. -ron o. Top #174759 - 03/15/08 02:23 PM Re: OFFESKEITEN [Re: tsuwm] twosleepy old hand Registered: 02/28/08 Posts: 724 Loc: western NY Okay, German isn't my strong suit, so please set me straight! Isn't "schiessen" pronounced (give a break here; more or less:) "shee-sen", and "scheissen" as "shy-sen"? That's a big difference, and from R. Eastcourt's phonetic description "-kiten" as opposed to "-keeten", it "sounds" like a long i to me. That would necessitate a "ei" combination, as in "scheissen". Okay, have at me!!! ;0) Edited by twosleepy (03/15/08 02:24 PM) Top #174767 - 03/15/08 05:51 PM Re: OFFESKEITEN [Re: twosleepy] Faldage Carpal Tunnel Registered: 12/01/00 Posts: 12381 Offeskeiten isn't German. It might could be some Germanic language; not sure I'd bet on it considering who it came from but I don't think we can draw any conclusions about what the vowel sequence would be in any German cognate even if it is a legitimate word in some Germanic language Top #174770 - 03/15/08 07:16 PM Re: no way [Re: Faldage] zmjezhd Pooh-Bah Registered: 08/13/05 Posts: 2270 Loc: R'lyeh Offeskeiten isn't German. What he said. I can't figure out what the putative word could be in German or any of the other usual suspects. the ending -keiten looks German, but yours is as good as anybody's what the offes represents. The -keiten to me looks like the standard German -keit, which forms abstract nouns out of adjectives, e.g., Niedrigkeit 'baseness' < niedrig 'base, lowly'. It's kind of like our -hood (cf. German -heit as in Gesundheit 'health') or -ness. Now it's possible, through strange transcription methods to posit a verb skeiten, which seems more Dutch than German, but that leaves the impossible offes (sounding to mine inner ear a lot like English office). The only place on the Web with offeskeiten is this thread (link). The single example of Offeskeit is a typical Google Books, old words in strange language confuses my OCR. I also thought for a second it could be Äffischkeit 'apishness', but I got over that. Maybe a nonce word, Auskeit 'outness'. No. Häufigkeit 'frequency, commonness'? Top #174776 - 03/16/08 12:42 AM Re: OFFESKEITEN [Re: R. Eastcourt] The Pook old hand Registered: 02/20/08 Posts: 1067 Loc: Tasmania  Originally Posted By: R. Eastcourt My dear, dead, neighbor used this word(adjective) to describe an ultra-conservative, boorish, gluttonous, self-centered, lazy, neighbor, of certain European descent. Is this a real word or did Jack just spit out pidgion German sounds? Phonetically it sounded: off'-ish-kiten......(add a country here) Perhaps it was Yiddish? Top Page 1 of 2 1 2 > Previous Topic Index Next Topic Preview Hop to: General Topics ------   Information and announcements   Q&A about words   Wordplay and fun   Words and languages in schools   Miscellany   Weekly Themes   Looking for (writers, speakers, ...) (Old) Weekly themes. (have been consolidated into a single forum above) ------   Words from medicine   Beheading words   Meta-words   Words from classical mythology   Animal Safari   Words with unusual etymologies   Eponyms or words derived from people's names.   Loanwords from German   English as a global language Print Topic Switch to Threaded Mode View profile Send a PM Add to your Watched Users View posts View profile Send a PM View homepage Add to your Watched Users View posts View profile Send a PM Add to your Watched Users View posts View profile Send a PM Add to your Watched Users View posts View profile Send a PM View homepage Add to your Watched Users View posts View profile Send a PM Add to your Watched Users View posts View profile Send a PM View homepage Add to your Watched Users View posts View profile Send a PM View homepage Add to your Watched Users View posts View profile Send a PM Add to your Watched Users View posts View profile Send a PM View homepage Add to your Watched Users View posts View profile Send a PM View homepage Add to your Watched Users View posts View profile Send a PM Add to your Watched Users View posts Forum Stats 7151 Members 16 Forums 12706 Topics 187592 Posts Max Online: 853 @ 10/23/07 11:39 AM Who's Online 2 registered (Buffalo Shrdlu, Faldage), 8 Guests and 34 Spiders online. Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod Newest Members Crejella, larsrc, KIDDETROIT, marksonamor, poetree 7151 Registered Users Top Posters wwh 13858 Faldage 12381 Jackie 10232 tsuwm 9400 Buffalo Shrdlu 6595 AnnaStrophic 6481 Wordwind 6296 of troy 5400 maverick 4683 WhitmanO'Neill 4186 November Su M Tu W Th F Sa 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Board Rules · Mark all read Default StyleBlackNTanDrabGooG_v2infopopSlatesnowsunny_dropshadowthebluesTouch_Of_Greyubbthreadsubbthreads-dark Contact Us · Wordsmith Talk · Top

Disclaimer: Wordsmith.org is not responsible for views expressed on this site. Use of this forum is at your own risk and liability - you agree to hold Wordsmith.org and its associates harmless as a condition of using it.

Home | Today's Word | Yesterday's Word | Subscribe | FAQ | Archives | Search | Feedback
Wordsmith Talk | Wordsmith Chat

© 2009 Wordsmith.org