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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    1 year 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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      1 year 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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        1 year 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.