Programmer Humor

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submitted 10 months ago by hypertown@lemmy.world to c/programmerhumor@lemmy.ml

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[–] JungleJim@sh.itjust.works 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

We got diff'ernt words fer lightbulb and pear though, I tell ya hwat.

[–] Dirk@lemmy.ml 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

German has different words, too. Even multiple one depending on accuracy

die Birne -> the pear
die Glühbirne -> "glowing pear", the light bulb, coming from the shape of the bulb, common, but even Germans see that its dumb
die Glühlampe -> "the glowing lamp", coming from the literally glowing filament that is used to produce light, the usual term
das Leuchtmittel -> "the thing that shines", no direct translation, closest would be "lamp", to describe, well, a thing that shines, independent of what is used to produce the light, usually used in technical documentation/environment

German also has multiple other terms to describe a lot of different light bulb shapes and types. Germans can even make up completely new types of light bulbs due to the heavy use of compound words, and every other German can understand that on the fly without further explanation.

Let me just imagine some.

das Bootshausseitenflutlicht -> a floodlight at the side of a boat house
die Dreiecksleuchte -> a lamp or light bulb in the shape of a triangle
das Hinterhausnachtlicht -> a night light for a part of a tenement house accessible only through a courtyard

[–] JungleJim@sh.itjust.works 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

That's really cool. For whatever it's worth I was joking. I've always admired German and almost elected to learn it in highschool, but socio-geographically(an off the cuff word combination in English), learning Spanish made more sense, as there are many Spanish speakers. But I digress; thank you for explaining such a neat feature of your language to me. I also must admit that the English word is not totally dissimilar in origin; a light-bulb glows in a lamp, but an onion is a bulb in the ground, so it isn't too different from glowpears.