Guten Rutsch

[Gerald Cohen]

     The Hebrew wish for a Happy New Year is Shanah Tovah (stress on
final syllable in each word; = "Year Good"). There's no Rosh in sight
here other than in the name of the holiday (Rosh ha-Shanah).
Meanwhile, German Rutsch "slide" in guten Rutsch (ins neue Jahr)
seems to make perfect sense. I assume the slide is that of a sled or
skier starting to move downhill.

Gerald Cohen


>At 2:54 PM -0500 1/1/03, Mark A Mandel wrote:
>A German friend on another list sent New Year's greetings with an
>etymology I find suspicious. Here is her posting with my reply. (I am
>bcc-ing her on this post.)
>
>         >>>>>
>
>#Oh, and then I have something cute for the linguists on this list.  In
>#Germany, we say "Guten Rutsch" on New Year's Eve.  It literally means "Good
>#Slide".  Sounds sort of science fiction-y, doesn't it?  Well, it really comes
>#from "Rosh" (= Hebrew for "beginning").  Handed down over centuries,
>#it changed into a German word that doesn't make too much sense in the
>#context.  Somehow, I feel a deep satisfaction that we have a - however
>#truncated - Hebrew word in our language.
>
>Lovely, and thank you. Sad to say, I have to be at least a little
>suspicious, (1) because it sounds almost cute (which in etymology is
>often a red flag), and (2) because the only reasonably likely route I
>can imagine is via Yiddish, and for that to make its way into general
>German usage doesn't seem too likely to me. And (3) why should Hebrew
>[roS] "rosh", which fits perfectly well into German phonology (it would
>be spelled "rosch"), be distorted into "rutsch" [rUtS]? Do you have any
>information on this?
>
>         <<<<<
>
>Comments, anyone?
>
>-- Mark A. Mandel