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Peter Kirk
Guest
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| Posted: Fri May 27, 2005 2:31 am
Post subject: fingerspitzengefühl |
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There are people in Denmark who tell me that "fingerspitzengefühl" is an
English word - or maybe at least a word borrowed recently from German and
common enough to be recognised by English speakers.
Please don't tell me I'm the only English speaker who has never heard this
word.
Peter |
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Don Phillipson
Guest
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| Posted: Fri May 27, 2005 3:30 am
Post subject: Re: fingerspitzengefühl |
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"Peter Kirk" <xdzgor@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:429631a6$0$226$edfadb0f@dread11.news.tele.dk...
| Quote: | There are people in Denmark who tell me that "fingerspitzengefühl" is an
English word - or maybe at least a word borrowed recently from German and
common enough to be recognised by English speakers.
Please don't tell me I'm the only English speaker who has never heard this
word.
|
Your Danish friends seem misled. The umlaut (ue) demonstrates
that "Fingerspitzengefühl" has not become assimilated to English
and remains a loan-word from German. So if Danish adopts it
as well, by whatever route, it remains a loan-word from German,
not an English word.
English has adopted a score of German loan-words for genuinely
new concepts for which English had room, but no native word to
fill the space, e.g. Schadenfreude and complex (noun) Since most
are fairly abstract or subtle, they may lie outside the core curriculum
(e.g. as taught up to minimum school leaving age: and many college
graduates may well have never come across neither of the two capitalized
here.)
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada) |
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CDB
Guest
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| Posted: Fri May 27, 2005 7:06 am
Post subject: Re: fingerspitzengefühl |
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"Peter Kirk" <xdzgor@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:429631a6$0$226$edfadb0f@dread11.news.tele.dk...
| Quote: | There are people in Denmark who tell me that "fingerspitzengefühl"
is an English word - or maybe at least a word borrowed recently from
German and common enough to be recognised by English speakers.
Please don't tell me I'm the only English speaker who has never
heard this word.
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These people: is any of them named Ronne? CDB |
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Scout
Guest
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| Posted: Fri May 27, 2005 2:36 pm
Post subject: Re: fingerspitzengefühl |
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"Peter Kirk" <xdzgor@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:429631a6$0$226$edfadb0f@dread11.news.tele.dk...
| Quote: | There are people in Denmark who tell me that "fingerspitzengefühl" is an
English word - or maybe at least a word borrowed recently from German and
common enough to be recognised by English speakers.
Please don't tell me I'm the only English speaker who has never heard this
word.
Peter
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My American Heritage Dictionary agrees with you.
Scout |
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Harvey Van Sickle
Guest
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| Posted: Fri May 27, 2005 2:40 pm
Post subject: Re: fingerspitzengefühl |
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On 26 May 2005, Peter Kirk wrote
| Quote: | There are people in Denmark who tell me that "fingerspitzengefühl"
is an English word - or maybe at least a word borrowed recently
from German and common enough to be recognised by English
speakers.
Please don't tell me I'm the only English speaker who has never
heard this word.
|
I'm another one who hasn't.
--
Cheers, Harvey
Canada for 30 years; S England since 1982.
(for e-mail, change harvey.news to harvey.van) |
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Matti Lamprhey
Guest
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| Posted: Fri May 27, 2005 3:00 pm
Post subject: Re: fingerspitzengefühl |
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"Peter Kirk" <xdzgor@hotmail.com> wrote...
| Quote: | There are people in Denmark who tell me that "fingerspitzengefühl" is
an English word - or maybe at least a word borrowed recently from
German and common enough to be recognised by English speakers.
Please don't tell me I'm the only English speaker who has never heard
this word.
|
Certainly not -- it's apparently in constant use in the British
parliament. Here's a lesson in this and other similar words:
http://www.richardbacon.org.uk/speeches/post_office.htm
Matti |
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Matti Lamprhey
Guest
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| Posted: Fri May 27, 2005 3:07 pm
Post subject: Re: fingerspitzengefühl |
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"Matti Lamprhey" <matti@official-totally-reversed.com> wrote...
| Quote: | "Peter Kirk" <xdzgor@hotmail.com> wrote...
There are people in Denmark who tell me that "fingerspitzengefühl"
is an English word - or maybe at least a word borrowed recently from
German and common enough to be recognised by English speakers.
Please don't tell me I'm the only English speaker who has never
heard this word.
Certainly not -- it's apparently in constant use in the British
parliament. Here's a lesson in this and other similar words:
http://www.richardbacon.org.uk/speeches/post_office.htm
Matti
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That should have read " -- but it's apparently...".
Matti |
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Alan OBrien
Guest
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| Posted: Sat May 28, 2005 7:03 am
Post subject: Re: fingerspitzengefühl |
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"Peter Kirk" <xdzgor@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:429631a6$0$226$edfadb0f@dread11.news.tele.dk...
| Quote: | There are people in Denmark who tell me that "fingerspitzengefühl" is an
English word - or maybe at least a word borrowed recently from German and
common enough to be recognised by English speakers.
Please don't tell me I'm the only English speaker who has never heard this
word.
|
I am English and I've never heard of it. God knows how the Danish knew it
was English while I'm English and I thought it looked German or Danish. |
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