Feb. 10th, 2006 02:41 pm
German Word-of-the-Day for Owlet: Day 8
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muckefuckder Zuckerwürfel /'tsukər'vʏrfəl/ "sugarcube"
Another easy compound. The relationship of der Zucker to sugar and their common ancestor, Arabic sukkar is clear enough, but where does der Würfel come from? From the irregular verb werfen "to throw": ich werfe, ich warf, ich würfe (subjunctive), and ich habe geworfen. A Würfel, then, is something that is thrown--originally, almost certainly a playing die. Since the dice used in das Würfelspielen were traditionally cube-shaped, the word eventually came to mean a cube of anything, from an Eiswürfel to a Blitzwürfel.
Zucker doesn't only come in Würfel, of course. Der Zuckerhut is a rare sight today and most restaurants seem to prefer individual Zuckerpäckchen even to a Zuckerstreuer filled with loose granules, much less an old-fashioned Zuckerdose or Zuckerbüchse filled with cubes or Streuzucker. However you portion it out, the German partitive construction doesn't require any prepositions, just the two words side by side: ein Päckchen Zucker für eine Tasse Tee.
Questions:
Another easy compound. The relationship of der Zucker to sugar and their common ancestor, Arabic sukkar is clear enough, but where does der Würfel come from? From the irregular verb werfen "to throw": ich werfe, ich warf, ich würfe (subjunctive), and ich habe geworfen. A Würfel, then, is something that is thrown--originally, almost certainly a playing die. Since the dice used in das Würfelspielen were traditionally cube-shaped, the word eventually came to mean a cube of anything, from an Eiswürfel to a Blitzwürfel.
Zucker doesn't only come in Würfel, of course. Der Zuckerhut is a rare sight today and most restaurants seem to prefer individual Zuckerpäckchen even to a Zuckerstreuer filled with loose granules, much less an old-fashioned Zuckerdose or Zuckerbüchse filled with cubes or Streuzucker. However you portion it out, the German partitive construction doesn't require any prepositions, just the two words side by side: ein Päckchen Zucker für eine Tasse Tee.
Questions:
- How would you say "I play dice"?
- Can you suggest English equivalents for the various compounds of Würfel and Zucker in the text?
- If you have to guess the gender of Zuckerdose and Zuckerbüchse, what would you pick and why?
- How would you say "a canister of sugar"? "A spoonful of sugar"?
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