In Finnish we have “kissanristiäiset” (literally means a cat’s christening), which means some trivial and meaningless celebration/event.

  • kyle@lemm.ee
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    9 months ago

    Is “das ist mir wurst” a thing? That’s one I learned from my MIL (from Bavaria).

    I also have a special love for the word “Mietschuldenfreiheitsbescheinigung”. And yes I had to Google the spelling lol.

    • relevants@feddit.de
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      9 months ago

      We say “das ist mir Wurst” in Hamburg too, so it must be a pretty universal saying.

      Is Mietschuldenfreiheitsbescheinigung used in a saying? The only meaning I can think of is the literal one (attestation of no rental debt)

      • kyle@lemm.ee
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        9 months ago

        You are correct, it’s the attestation, not an actual saying. I just think it’s wild how many words were shoved together to make this abomination of a word.

        • silly goose meekah@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          It’s called a composite word. English has them too, like schoolbus, but German just went crazy with them. Feels like every other word is a composite

          Flugzeug = flying stuff = plane

          Glühbirne = glowing pear = light bulb

          But some examples just take it on a whole other level. Like “Rindfleisch­etikettierungs­überwachungs­aufgaben­übertragungs­gesetz”, meaning “Beef labeling supervision duties delegation law”.

          • Fonzie!@ttrpg.network
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            9 months ago

            TBF English has words like “backpack”, which then get turned into a verb like “to go backpacking”.

            But in some Germanic language like German (Dutch too), you should write all words that describe one noun together as one, which leads to words like huttentuttententoonstelling.

    • Wolf Link 🐺@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      It’s a thing in Hesse, too ;) you can also say “Ist mir Schnuppe” or “Ist mir schnurz”, which essentially mean the same thing (“I don’t care”) but the literal translation is different. “Schnuppe” is the burnt end if a candle wick, but I have seriously no idea what “schnurz” is supposed to be, lol.