interesting metaphor

[Chris Waigl]

On 9 Dec 2008, at 20:43, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>
> By analogy with Schokoladenseite 'attractive side', I would expect
> 'Schokoladenbein' to be the golden leg, not the weak one.  But let's
> ask Franz (Beckenbauer, that is).


"Schokoladenbein" lives a marginal life at the edge of my vocabulary.
I had to think about what it might mean, though I vaguely remember
encountering it before, with the meaning attested for German. The
analogy with "Schokoladenseite" feels right to me. "Schokoladenseite"
is in my passive vocabulary, but it's to cutesy for me to use (much).

For manual clumsiness, German has the metaphorical "Butterfinger",
which unfortunately is the name of a candy bar which got taken off the
shelves in Germany after widespread and vocal consumer rejection (it
contained/contains genetically modified corn and would have been or
was one of the first foodstuffs to be sold in Germany with the
obligatory labelling in place).

I can't find many examples for "Butterbeine" (butter legs). There's
"Butterknie", which is widespread, though more in a context of illness
or stage fright than relating to clumsiness.

The entire metaphoric complex is not really part of my own regional
variety -- sounds norddeutsch to my ears.

Chris Waigl
chocolate-loving German native speaker

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org