this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2023
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In Finnish we have "kissanristiäiset" (literally means a cat's christening), which means some trivial and meaningless celebration/event.

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[–] kyle@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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.

[–] meekah@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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".

[–] lord_ryvan@ttrpg.network 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 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.