Comment on What a gentleman
LeFrog@discuss.tchncs.de 3 weeks agoGreat to see a fellow frog in the wild!
I am guessing this comes directly from German
The German and English wikipedia have interesting information about the etymology of the English chair and the German Stuhl:
Chair:
Chair comes from the early 13th-century English word chaere, from Old French chaiere (“chair, seat, throne”), from Latin cathedra (“seat”).
Stuhl:
[…] althochdeutsch stuol ‚Sitz, Thron‘ […]
(Old high German stuol meaning ‘seat’ or ‘throne’
Das Wort Stuhl […] ist mit l-Suffix zur indoeuropäischen Wurzel *stā-, *stǝ- ‚stehen, stellen‘ gebildet.
(The word Stuhl is built from the proto-indo-european language by adding the suffix ‘l’ to the root ‘*stā’ or ‘*stǝ’ which means ‘to stand’)
So both means seat/seating or throne but chair is more a throne-like furniture (by having arm rests and/or back rest) whereas Stuhl was more like a simple stool (a small foot rest or seating without any back rest or arm rests). In German we use “Schemel” or “Hocker” to describe such a stool. “Schemel” seems to come from “scamilla”, Latin for small bench.
I have no idea how all this information helps us, but it’s interesting :D
whereas Stuhl was more like a simple stool (a small foot rest or seating without any back rest or arm rests). In German we use “Schemel” or “Hocker” to describe such a stool.
So what you’re saying is that the meme doesn’t work in German either, because the furniture in the meme would be referred to as a “Schemel” rather than a “Stuhl”
This meme is an abortion of human language smh
No no, if you just use Stuhl it works perfectly in German. This word has exactly the double meaning that is necessary for the pun, it’s not even a stretch. I’d have more trouble finding an appropriate verb for the translation.
A Schemel is really a very small seat, no taller than knee-height. It’s something you sit on to milk a cow for example.
And a Hocker is a kind of chair with usually neither arm nor foot-rest of any height. I’d say it’s pretty much a perfect match for the English stool. You could call a Schemel a kind of Hocker, but a Hocker can also be as tall as a normal chair or even taller at counter height, in which case we’d call it a Barhocker.
No no, it works even better: “Stuhl” means chair in modern German. The joke/pun is well-known in German: “Darf ich Ihnen den Stuhl zurückschieben?” So unlike in the English version, “Stuhl” literally both means “chair” and “poop”.
frog@feddit.uk 3 weeks ago
Yes always good to see a fellow frog!
So this meme would only make sense in Old High German.
That is interesting.
Thanks for the info.
LeFrog@discuss.tchncs.de 3 weeks ago
Maybe I put it wrong, but it works even better in modern Germany: “Stuhl” means chair in modern German. The joke/pun is well-known in German: “Darf ich Ihnen den Stuhl zurückschieben?” So unlike in the English version, “Stuhl” literally both means “chair” and “poop”.
frog@feddit.uk 3 weeks ago
It’s probably me misunderstanding. Thank you for the correction.