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Previous Thread Next Thread Print Thread OFFESKEITEN #171476 11/20/2007 5:04 PM Joined: Nov 2007 Posts: 99 Hungarian Gypsy R. Eastcourt journeyman R. Eastcourt journeyman Joined: Nov 2007 Posts: 99 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) Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: OFFESKEITEN R. Eastcourt #171494 11/20/2007 8:29 PM Joined: Jun 2006 Posts: 5,295 Netherlands, the Hague BranShea Carpal Tunnel BranShea Carpal Tunnel Joined: Jun 2006 Posts: 5,295 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. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: OFFESKEITEN BranShea #171536 11/23/2007 5:35 AM Joined: Nov 2007 Posts: 99 Hungarian Gypsy R. Eastcourt journeyman R. Eastcourt journeyman Joined: Nov 2007 Posts: 99 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. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: OFFESKEITEN R. Eastcourt #171849 12/03/2007 11:59 AM Joined: Feb 2007 Posts: 5 Here Be Dragons Scriveyn stranger Scriveyn stranger Joined: Feb 2007 Posts: 5 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. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: OFFESKEITEN Scriveyn #171850 12/03/2007 12:23 PM Joined: Jun 2006 Posts: 5,295 Netherlands, the Hague BranShea Carpal Tunnel BranShea Carpal Tunnel Joined: Jun 2006 Posts: 5,295 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. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: OFFESKEITEN BranShea #174743 03/15/2008 1:39 AM Joined: Feb 2008 Posts: 876 western NY twosleepy old hand twosleepy old hand Joined: Feb 2008 Posts: 876 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... Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: OFFESKEITEN twosleepy #174753 03/15/2008 2:22 PM Joined: Aug 2005 Posts: 3,290 R'lyeh zmjezhd Carpal Tunnel zmjezhd Carpal Tunnel Joined: Aug 2005 Posts: 3,290 R'lyeh a "bad" word German schießen 'to shoot', aufschießen 'to coil up (a rope)', and scheißen 'to shit'. Ceci n'est pas un seing. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: OFFESKEITEN zmjezhd #174757 03/15/2008 4:05 PM Joined: Apr 2000 Posts: 10,542 this too shall pass tsuwm Carpal Tunnel tsuwm Carpal Tunnel Joined: Apr 2000 Posts: 10,542 this too shall pass i.e., what a difference an 'ei' makes. -ron o. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: OFFESKEITEN tsuwm #174759 03/15/2008 6:23 PM Joined: Feb 2008 Posts: 876 western NY twosleepy old hand twosleepy old hand Joined: Feb 2008 Posts: 876 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) Last edited by twosleepy; 03/15/2008 6:24 PM. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: OFFESKEITEN twosleepy #174767 03/15/2008 9:51 PM Joined: Dec 2000 Posts: 13,803 Faldage Carpal Tunnel Faldage Carpal Tunnel Joined: Dec 2000 Posts: 13,803 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 Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: no way Faldage #174770 03/15/2008 11:16 PM Joined: Aug 2005 Posts: 3,290 R'lyeh zmjezhd Carpal Tunnel zmjezhd Carpal Tunnel Joined: Aug 2005 Posts: 3,290 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. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: OFFESKEITEN R. Eastcourt #174776 03/16/2008 4:42 AM Joined: Feb 2008 Posts: 1,067 Tasmania The Pook old hand The Pook old hand Joined: Feb 2008 Posts: 1,067 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? Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Moderated by  Jackie  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. 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