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Page 2 of 2 < 1 2 Topic Options #174770 - 03/15/08 07:16 PM Re: no way [Re: Faldage] zmjezhd Carpal Tunnel Registered: 08/13/05 Posts: 3269 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'? _________________________ Ceci n'est pas un seing. 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 2 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 Moderator:  Jackie  Print Topic Switch to Threaded Mode 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 8424 Members 16 Forums 13686 Topics 209776 Posts Max Online: 3341 @ 12/09/11 02:15 PM Newest Members teepee, smoothcriminal86, janbra, junebug, Stephen A 8423 Registered Users Who's Online 1 registered (endymion6), 20 Guests and 1 Spider online. Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod Top Posters (30 Days) LukeJavan8 88 jenny jenny 60 wofahulicodoc 54 endymion6 48 Rhubarb Commando 36 BranShea 34 Buffalo Shrdlu 15 zmjezhd 13 Faldage 12 Jackie 12 May 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 31

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