Coup de grace

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>A guy walks into a bar -- that would be me -- after living several years
>in Germany. I asked for a L(oe)-ven-broy. The bartender had absolutely no
>idea what I was talking about. Fortunately Bier is beer.

In English there is a pseudo-German word "brau", which is pronounced like
"brow" ... that's how we know it's quote-German-unquote, it's not "braw".
This word seems to mean "beer".

Does German have such a word "Brau" (as distinct from "Braeu" or "Bra"u"
with umlaut) ... maybe in a dialect?

In Japan, I thought I could order coffee by saying "coffee". [Of course the
word is virtually universal, and I knew the Japanese word is "kouhii" ("ou"
= long "o") which looks like it's a loan from English (first vowel "o"
instead of more usual "a").] Nope. No comprehension of "coffee" by the
coffee-shop workers in my two attempts. "Kouhii" worked fine, and I mended
my ways thereafter. The Anglo-Saxons are not the only parochial ones in
these matters, apparently.

-- Doug Wilson