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I believe he's talking about prophylactics.
Real gummibears, OTOH, are made by Haribo in Bonn. The company name stands for Hans Richter Bonn. They have a jingle, which is I guess a kind of Ohrwurm: "Haribo macht Kinder froh, / Und auch die Eltern ebenso." (Haribo makes children happy, / And likewise also parents.) At Karneval time, when the floats are passing by in the parades, kids and adults alike cry out for Kamelle and Gummibärchen. University students have been known to protest: "Freiheit für die Gummibärchen! Weg mit der Plastiktüte!" (Freedom for the gummi bears! Down with the plastic bag!) Ah, Karnevalzeit ...
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Gummi also means 'eraser' in German. It also is slang term, as is the English 'rubber', for condom. You used to hear about gum arabic, but I guess it's gone out of style. Both the English and the German words are from the French, thence from Latin and finally from Greek.
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journeyman
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journeyman
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"Haribo macht Kinder froh, / Und auch die Eltern ebenso."
It's "Haribo macht Kinder froh, und Erwachsene ebenso". And yes, the fact that it's firmly lodged in my memory does say something about the power of a catchy slogan.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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>Haribo macht Kinder froh, und Erwachsene ebenso, . . . catcy slogan.
Whereas the only German phrase that really stuck with me like that was a line from a Morgenstern poem "ein lattenzaun, mit zwischenraum, hindurchzuschaun." I liked the poem, but that little phrase struck me as utterly cute. Plus the last line reminds me of an Emo Philipps song called "most states".
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So much for the power of advertizing. But why are baby lice called nits?
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
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Anglo-Saxon hnitu.
Where did that come from?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I allus liked "Den Pflaumenbaum glaubt man ihm kaum." I can hear it in the German version of My Fair Lady.
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veteran
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OE hnitu came from the PIE root *knid, *k'nid, *sknid 'louse, egg of the louse, nit'. So, it's safe to say that the Proto-Indo-Europeans knew about lice, nits, and the louse reproductive cycle. I see the word survives in Armenian anic, Albanian thëni, Greek konis (konidos), Middle Irish sned, Welsh nedd pl., Breton nez.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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ah, the vermicious knid... 
formerly known as etaoin...
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"We are the knights who say nit."
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