Austrian for foreigners

I am getting comments and/or that Austrian is a sexist language, as most of the explained words here make women bad, please let me assure you, that this is not the case. This whole blog just got created to make a log which funny Austrian words we encounter while my wife is learning German. And really: It is not making women bad, is it?

OK, today's word will be Schachtel, which is a box. And Schachtel is used for... a woman. Often used in conjunction as alte Schachtel which makes a not too smart elderly woman, and often complaining uselessly about something.

As people might now think about the use of this Blog again here we have yet another Homework: Next time you are at the cashier in the super market you don't have much time as your lunch break is soon over and there is this elderly lady in front of you that needs about forever to put her few things on the conveyor belt and is totally baffled that she has to pay and does this with all the small coins she has in her purse, has…

Today we are (again) talking about something to eat. I hope that you guys out there reading my blog are not getting upset or think that all we ever do is eat.

We are talking about Blunzn today. The proper German would be something like Blutwurst or in English blood sausage. For easier understanding two pictures:







As you see it is something quite red and fatty.

The Austrian word for fatty is fett and it is pronounced the same way as the English fat. And the word we explain first is: Blunzn-fett this is an adjective and used for people who are quite drunk. Just a little bit more than having a Damenspitzerl we will explain that too, just wait and keep on checking and coming back.

The other use is: Blunzn or blede Blunzn and very often used for women in a not to charming way. If you look at the pictures a little longer and try to match them faces you will see that the face of a person can get that way, if the person is quite upset. And women always upset about everything tend to get this f…

OK, first of all, a picture of a Semmel:

As you can see a Semmel is a bread roll. But look a little bit longer at the picture, does it not look like the hair color of a blonde? As this is exactly how it is used in Austria as well, as a not too smart woman with blond hair.

A famous use is in the song of Rainhard Fendrich called Blond.

OK, everybody knows that Bier is beer. But there is something deeper about that. What exactly? This comes only out when used in a context. If you say in Austria for example: Des is sei' Bier you could mean that somebody just came to your table and you want to advise him that the beer located there is somebody's own. However, you can use it for a matter of fact as well, then you want to express that this is somebody's business and you don't want to interfere with it.

This is slippers even though the Germans translate it with Pantoffeln or Hausschuhe. So there the problems would start if you use that in Germany. But it gets better -- or at least more confusing: If somebody talks a lot you may advise him to hold his/her slipper, in Austrian this would be: "Hoid in Schlapfm" and this would be translated back to English into: Shut up.

This is a person, but a no-good. Even though hader comes from hadern and means something like "to quarrel with" and a lump is a rag or tatter