Random fact

[pne]

The German word for "nipple" translates literally as "breast wart". No, seriously.

(Though since it's been lexicalised, I'd imagine that most native German speakers tend not to think of warts when talking about nipples; that is, they tend to use it as an unanalysable single-part name, much like, say, "guinea pig", which is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig, yet most native English speakers probably think of neither when they say the name unless they consciously pick it apart.)

Comments

[darth-spacey.livejournal.com]

I had in my mind that "die Brustwarze" was one of several possible words, and not the one in common usage. I thought it was in The Language Log, or Snopes, or something, quite recently, but can't immediately find it. None of my sources give any other translations except for engineering terms and the sort of rubber nipples one finds on a baby's bottle. Curious.

[elgrande.livejournal.com]

It is in common usage.

[leora.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm, or maybe their word for "wart" is "nipple". and they specify "breast nipples" for what we think of as nipples.

[pne.livejournal.com]

That is a possible interpretation, but it doesn't feel that way to this native speaker.

(And the word, "Warze", looks as if it's almost certainly cognate to English "wart".)

[elgrande.livejournal.com]

I think of it as two breast warts, I think, but the word "Warze" is not fully there in its usual meaning. As has been suggested in the comment before, "Brustwarze" sounds something like "breast nipple" to me.

[elgrande.livejournal.com]

I have no idea why I put "two" there.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

When I first learned the word, I misread it as "Brustwaren" and thought that tits were prosaically named "breast-goods" in German.

[fledchen.livejournal.com]

I'd offer that most English-speaking people think of "test subject" before they think of "south american rodent commonly kept as a pet" when they hear "guinea pig."

[sparkofcreation.livejournal.com]

The Spanish word for "nipple" is "pezón" and the Catalan word for "kiss" is "petó" (plural: "petons"). Every time I see someone signing off a letter in Catalan with "Petons!" it freaks me out for a second.

Random fact: in Spanish a "guinea pig" (in both senses) is an "Indies rabbit" (conejo/conejillo de Indias). Though in some placesc the animal and its meat are called "cuy" (rhymes with gooey, more or less).

[pne.livejournal.com]

Random fact: in Spanish a "guinea pig" (in both senses) is an "Indies rabbit" (conejo/conejillo de Indias).

And in German, it's a "little sea pig" (Meerschweinchen), at least for the animal -- the test subject is a "trial rabbit" or "test rabbit" (Versuchskaninchen).

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Me, I always trip over the fact that a petó looks like it should be an awfully big pet.

My sister was so gratified to discover the alternative name cavy (which, strictly speaking, applies to agoutis, capybaras, and the like in addition to guinea pigs) that she named her pet guinea pig that, albeit with the non-standard pronunciation "cavvy".

[gothiclord-nick.livejournal.com]

...Interesting. :P