logo       

gesundheit: msg#00021

culture.language.word-of-the-day

Subject: gesundheit

****************************************************************
You may swim this summer, but is the past tense "swum" or
"swam?" Check out our Concise Dictionary of English Usage.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/book.pl?conusg.htm&6
****************************************************************

The Word of the Day for July 22 is:

gesundheit \guh-ZOONT-hyte\ interjection
: used to wish good health especially to one who has just sneezed

Example sentence:
"Gesundheit!" said the man on the bicycle as he passed a lady on the
sidewalk who had sneezed.

Did you know?
When English speakers hear "achoo," they usually respond with either
"gesundheit" or "God bless you." "Gesundheit" was borrowed from German, where
it literally means "health"; it was formed by a combination of "gesund"
("healthy") and "-heit" ("-hood"). Wishing a person good health when they
sneezed was believed to forestall the illness that a sneeze often portends.
"God bless you" had a similar purpose, albeit with more divine weight to the
well-wishing. It was once believed the soul could exit the body during a
sneeze, causing ill health, so folks said "God bless you" to ward off this
danger. "Gesundheit," at one time, also served as a toast when drinking (much
like its English counterpart, "to your health"), but this usage is now mostly
obsolete.







<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Google Custom Search

News | FAQ | advertise