An interesting Dutch word I learnt recently is kwetsen [ˈkʋɛtsə(n)], which means to hurt (sb’s feelings) or to harm, and in some Dutch dialects it means to wound or injure.
Related words include:
- kwetsbaar = vulnerable, fragile, vulnarability
- kwetsend = hurtful, offensive, insulting
- kwetsuur = injury, lesion, wound
It comes from the Middle Dutch word quetsen, from the Old Dutch quezzon (to damage, hurt), and was possibly influenced by or borrowed from the Old French quasser (to break, annul, quash), from the Latin quassāre (to shake, agitate), from the Proto-Indo-European *kʷeh₁t- (to shake) [source].
The German word quetschen [ˈkvɛtʃən] (to squash, crush, squeeze, mash, strain) probably comes from the same root [source], as does the Yiddish word קוועטשן (kvetshn – to squeeze, pinch; bother, complain), from which we get the English word kvetch [kvɛtʃ] (to whine or complain, often needlessly and incessantly) [source].
Incidentally, the German equivalent of a squeezebox (an informal name for accordions, concertinas and related instruments) is a Quetschkommode, or literally a “squeeze commode / dresser / chest of drawers” [source].
The English word quash (to defeat decisively; to void or suppress) comes from the same Old French word (quasser), via the Middle English quaschen, quasshen, cwessen, quassen (to crush, smash, cancel, make void, shake) [source].
From the same PIE root (*kʷeh₁t-) we get the English words pasta, paste, pastiche and pastry [source]. Pasta, for example, comes from the Italian pasta (paste, pasta), from the Late Latin pasta (dough, pastry cake, paste), from the Ancient Greek πάστα (pásta – barley porridge), from παστός (pastós – sprinkled with salt), from πάσσω (pássō – to sprinkle) [source].
I had a funny thought. Have you ever looked at a word on a sign as you are driving past it, and in the short amount of time you have to figure out what it is, you draw the wrong conclusion? And then, even though you *know* it’s the wrong conclusion, you are mentally ‘stuck’ with it because that was your first take on it?
I had such a moment here. I was certain your article about Kvetching was actually about catsup (ketchup). So I am thinking, why in the world is Simon talking about ketchup?
So, why ARE you, Simon?
:-))
I am not talking, or kvetching, about ketchup. Do you really call it catsup?
I don’t know why, but at least in the US, the tomato condiment is known both at catsup and as ketchup. Never knew why there were two words for the same thing, and also, why “catsup” is always pronounced as if it were “ketchup”, which of course is pronounced like “catch-up”.
English is weird. That’s all there is to it :-))