this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2023
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I don't get US spelling of "meter" for the metric system they don't even use. My car dashboard is two meters wide. Speedometer and tachometer. It's probably about half a metre wide.
I dunno what a kilometer would be. A device that can measure anything in thousands of something; weight, volume, speed, etc.
"The scale says you weigh 0.07 metric tonnes."
"Oh my god, I'm so fat."
"No, that's only 70kg, it's this stupid kilometer. Makes everything seem bigger than it is."
*opens a german dictionary*
*it says „Meter“*
*shrugs*
Now that you have it open, could you find a funny compound noun or two? I love those!
I'm German, I don't need a dictionary for that. We make them up on the fly. For example, Autowaschanlagenführer or Türöffnungsmechanismuswartung
I remember a little German from it being mandatory in school here in Denmark where we also like compound nouns so imma give it a shot:
"Car wash hose boss" and "door opening mechanism maintenance"?
Yes
Almost. „Car wash operator“ it is.
If I worked in a car wash I would demand to be called a hose boss
Same tbh 😂
How about Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzung? That's my personal favorite, though it lacks umlauts.
I'm guessing that means speed limit? Nice 😂
Yes
Okay I'm curious. With Danish being a Germanic language, how much are you benefiting from cognates and the like when making your guesses?
Some. Danish isn't as closely related to German as it is to Norwegian or Swedish, but there are a lot of similarities such as similar words. Danmark is mostly an even weirder than Dutch combination of German and English 😁
Weirder than Dutch? I do not believe this.
I know it's a tall order but I'm pretty sure it's true. Danish is a really weird language 😄
It's the opposite. A kilometer is a thousand meters, a kilowatt is a thousand watts and a kilogram is a shitload of cocaine.
Because homonyms are the worst part of any language and Noah Webster agrees with me.
British people will fund pirates to steal our measuring weights, only to convert themselves 200 years later and then act like the US doesn't have a single STEM field. And then drive by the mile for a pint of milk.
Well you have me- from proto-european which means to measure.
Then you have metrical (metricus/metrikos from Latin/Greek) that means to measure rhythm in poetry.
Mētrum/Metron again from Latin/Greek meaning "measure, length, size, limit, proportion"
Then "metre" which is originally a unit of length. Then you have a "metre stick" which is a stick used to measure a metre. You can blame the French for basically calling it a "measurement stick" but it refers to a very specific measurement.
Then you have the -or suffix in Latin which means "to have to do with" or "to pertain to". Then that turns in to -re and -er in Old English.
And like everything else - Brittan used both for centuries before deciding one was "right" and everyone else is at fault for the other way (just like how "Soccer" is a British term). Famously Shakespeare used both -re and -er.
Lastly, the US uses the metric system for its professions. It's layman's terms that don't use metric.
I think you need to rework that one bud.