1188
bugs (mander.xyz)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] samus12345@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

It's an unfortunate false friend that the German word Gift means poison in English.

[-] Username@feddit.de 4 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Funnily there is also the word "Mitgift" (Dowry) that has nothing to do with poison at all and is closer to the english "gift".

[-] roguetrick@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Same root though. In Dutch it wasn't differentiated until recently so the same word has vastly different meanings between Afrikaans and Dutch. https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/gifte#Middle_Low_German

Original meaning seems to be something that was given. So a snake would gift you Poison just like snot nosed brats would gift you a cold during Thanksgiving dinner.

Same meaning as dose in that sense. https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/dosis#Latin

[-] samus12345@lemmy.world 3 points 6 months ago

The word has been used as a euphemism for "poison" since Old High German, a semantic loan from Late Latin dosis (“dose”), from Ancient Greek δόσις (dósis, “gift; dose of medicine”).

I wondered how the heck it got that meaning. Pretty strange to apply a term for giving something in general to poison specifically.

this post was submitted on 09 May 2024
1188 points (98.7% liked)

Science Memes

11081 readers
2732 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS