Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Your Literal Is Served, Sir

The German language, as you may or may not know, is frequently literal, blunt and to-the-point. (... As many Germans are! Zing! This continues to support my frequent musings that people are direct reflections of their languages, and vice versa).

I was washing dishes today and thought to look up the word for carnivore in German. The online dictionary pulls up:

carnivore: der Fleischfresser

Which literally translates to "the Flesh/Meat feeder".
Then I follow the predictable route:

herbivore: der Pflanzenfresser

Which translates to "the Plant feeder".
AND NOW GET THIS:

omnivore: der Allesfresser

Which translates to "the EVERYTHING FEEDER".

I know this is not really remarkable in a practical light, but I found myself incredibly amused by this. EVERYTHING FEEDER! Raawr!! Maybe it's how accurately this word describes my own dietary pattern. Okay, so this is also funnier if you might know a little German and understand the word "fressen" for eating as opposed to the word "essen" for eating.

(For Michael: FATZILLA VERSCHLINGT ALLES!)
(omg!!!! And I even found the picture to correspond! I rock.)

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