• mindbleach@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    Hot dogs are bastardized from three separate Germanic names. Frankfurt sausages sounded a bit formal, so you got “hot dachshunds,” except Americans could neither spell nor pronounce the name of that breed, so you get “hot dogs.” If you asked what a hot dog was you’d probably be told it’s a wiener on a bun, where the English word “wiener” is a loanword from the German conjugation of “from Vienna.” And we’ve come full circle by routinely referring to dachshunds as wiener dogs.

    The less-fun tangent about the prominence of German food in American culture is that New York was famed for its wealthy German-American families until all their wives and children were on a boat that sank. I am not joking.

    • Mkengine@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      I always found it funny that it is called “dachshund” in English. In German it is called “Dackel” and “dachshund” would be translated as “badger dog”. I don’t think that a badger is really meant here, but that the language has just developed a bit strangely (like with the word ampersand).

      • ThunderclapSasquatch@startrek.website
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        1 year ago

        We call them that because they were meant to drive badgers from dens. It’s why they are so inclined to be aggressive little shits when not properly trained

        • Mkengine@feddit.de
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          1 year ago

          Thanks for the explanation, I didn’t know that and wikipedia does not explain that in their etymology section.

          • ThunderclapSasquatch@startrek.website
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            1 year ago

            Always happy to help, it’s not often that my families multiple generations of dog breeding and training actually provides relevant information to internet conversations