Hot dogs are bastardized from three separate Germanic names. Frankfurt sausages sounded a bit formal, so you got "hot dachshunds," except Americans could neither spell nor pronounce the name of that breed, so you get "hot dogs." If you asked what a hot dog was you'd probably be told it's a wiener on a bun, where the English word "wiener" is a loanword from the German conjugation of "from Vienna." And we've come full circle by routinely referring to dachshunds as wiener dogs.

The less-fun tangent about the prominence of German food in American culture is that New York was famed for its wealthy German-American families until all their wives and children were on a boat that sank. I am not joking.

[–] TheyCallMeHacked@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Quick note, just to be a pedantic arsehole: conjugation is specific to verbs. The general term is declension, which includes conjugation, but more broadly refers to the changing of a word depending on its semantical context

[–] mindbleach@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You are technically correct. The best kind of correct.

[–] victron@programming.dev 2 points 1 year ago

The kind of correct you can't be mad at.

[–] jxk@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

This is incorrect btw. Conjugation is not a special form of declension. Declension does not apply to verbs. The general term for both is morphology.

[–] can@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Survivors reported that the life preservers were useless and fell apart in their hands, while desperate mothers placed life jackets on their children and tossed them into the water, only to watch in horror as their children sank instead of floating. Most of those on board were women and children who, like most Americans of the time, could not swim; victims found that their heavy wool clothing absorbed water and weighed them down in the river.[9]: 108–113

t was discovered that Nonpareil Cork Works, supplier of cork materials to manufacturers of life preservers, placed 8 oz (230 g) iron bars inside the cork materials to meet minimum content requirements (6 lb (2.7 kg) of "good cork") at the time. Nonpareil's deception was revealed by David Kahnweiler's Sons, who inspected a shipment of 300 cork blocks.[5]: 71–72 Many of the life preservers had been filled with cheap and less effective granulated cork and brought up to proper weight by the inclusion of the iron weights. Canvas covers, rotted with age, split and scattered the powdered cork. Managers of the company (Nonpareil Cork Works) were indicted but not convicted. The life preservers on the Slocum had been manufactured in 1891 and had hung above the deck, unprotected from the elements, for 13 years.[9]: 118–119

What a disaster, fuck

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe 7 points 1 year ago

"capitalism makes the best product for the lowest cost because of the invisible hand of the child drowning monster"

[–] RickyRigatoni@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

On the plus side they didn't have to live to see their home country get fucked twice in a row.

[–] mindbleach@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I know what you're saying, but their home country was America.

[–] SnipingNinja@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 year ago

That's what they're saying I think? First they saw Germany, then they would've seen America? Though idk if those people were immigrants or the second generation of immigrants

[–] sverit@feddit.de 3 points 1 year ago

Well, we have Wiener Würstchen made from pork and beef, and we have Frankfurter Würstchen which are made from pork and are smoked :)

[–] Mkengine@feddit.de 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I always found it funny that it is called "dachshund" in English. In German it is called "Dackel" and "dachshund" would be translated as "badger dog". I don't think that a badger is really meant here, but that the language has just developed a bit strangely (like with the word ampersand).

[–] ThunderclapSasquatch@startrek.website 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

We call them that because they were meant to drive badgers from dens. It's why they are so inclined to be aggressive little shits when not properly trained

[–] Mkengine@feddit.de 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thanks for the explanation, I didn't know that and wikipedia does not explain that in their etymology section.

[–] ThunderclapSasquatch@startrek.website 1 points 1 year ago

Always happy to help, it's not often that my families multiple generations of dog breeding and training actually provides relevant information to internet conversations

[–] mindbleach@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago

They don't look like badgers - they hunt badgers. They were bred specifically to hunt in burrows.