Guten Rutsch

Peter Richardson prichard at LINFIELD.EDU
Thu Jan 2 17:31:11 UTC 2003


Lutz Roehrich often has Hebrew sources for German sayings in his Lexikon
der sprichwoertlichen Redensarten, but he doesn't give any for "Guten
Rutsch." He says only that the connotation of a slow, almost unnoticeable
slide over into the new year is at the base of the expression, attested
since about 1900. Apparently related: "einen Rutsch(er) machen" 'take a
little trip' is attested in the Saxony/Thuringia/Berlin area since the
middle of the 19th Century.

I'd be suspicious of the Hebrew connection as well; I think your note
about the bad phonological fit is correct.

PR

On Wed, 1 Jan 2003, 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
>



More information about the Ads-l mailing list