Pulykamell makes a good point, and I’m glad we got the facts (though there isn’t consensus on all points). Add this to the list of words that are surprisingly not related. For me, the champion of this category will always be English “day”/Latin dies “day” (and its descendants like Spanish dia or French (lun-)di, (mar-)di, (mercre-)di, etc.)
“Gang” as a verb in current Low Scots means “go”; this usage goes back many centuries and is also found in other Northern British languages. Gang in Modern and medieval German also means go. I cannot see anything other than a direct derivation.
Gang as a group of people or as in gangway may have an alternative explanation, but I would say that the same world being used in two languages sharing the common root language is certain to be cognate.
I agree that it’s surprising, Pjen. But it appears that Scots has both “gae” or “ga” (cognate with “go”) and “gang” (may or may not be related).
Here’s what the OED has to say.
Number 3 is basically saying that there existed in Germanic a verb stantan with a variant sten. There also existed a contrasting verb gangan, and the form gen was formed by analogy.
Uh, nobody says “fare thee well” here in Kansas except maybe first graders singing Polly Wolly Doodle at their spring recital.
Well, maybe some Yoder residents, but they wouldn’t be likely to post here.
If I understand this correctly, then Walking is now a reasonably common loanword in German, in which case the “(Eng.)” annotation was likely an error, since that usually isn’t done for loanwords.
The annotation (Eng.) was probably used to indicate that a word English origin was asked.
The writer of the quiz might even not be fully aware that he used a definition that is only really true for the German usage of the word. The adaption of the English word “Walking” into the German language is fairly recent. It is still felt very much as loan word as opposed to “older” loan words, that are being used without the direct connection to the English language. When Using e.g. the word “Boykott” (for engl. “boycott” of course) a German speaker might even not be aware the he used an English loan word. Whereas for “Walking” people are probably very much aware the it is a word of English origin.
Yep, probably this. There are scores of such “Denglisch” words borrowed from English into German, often with very unexpected shifts in meaning. I few months ago wrote a multiple-choice puzzle for an English-language magazine where the object is to guess the definitions of 50 such words (including “Walking”). Before submitting it to the publisher I tested it out on my German colleagues—all of them scored 100%, but were surprised when I told them that none of the words has the same meaning in English. My English-speaking colleagues, however, scored no better than chance.
Here are some examples from the quiz, in case anyone wants to try their luck:
[ol]
[li]der Callboy: (a) walkie-talkie (b) page boy (c) gigolo (d) mobile phone[/li][li]der Streetworker: (a) construction worker (b) social worker (c) missionary (d) street performer[/li][li]der Boomer: (a) baby boomer (b) boom box (c) cluster bomb (d) boom operator[/li][li]das Mobbing: (a) bullying (b) flash mob (c) texting (d) racketeering[/li][li]der Sprayer: (a) garden hose (b) playboy (c) graffiti artist (d) spit-take[/li][/ol]
Very interesting! Purely guessing, I’ll go with:
- a
- d
- b
- c
- c
Sorry, you got only one correct! Anyone else want to have a go before the correct answers are revealed?
No takers? OK, the answers are as follows: 1. c 2. b 3. d 4. a 5. c
If anyone’s interested, the full quiz appears in the November 2013 issue of Babel: The Language Magazine.
Cool. It’s nice to score 20% and still be the winner! 
Huh?
I’m German. I have never heard this word used in German/Denglish.
Perhaps it’s more commonly used in film industry circles. But the word’s in the Verein Deutsche Sprache’s Anglizismenliste 2003, so it must be in common enough usage to get the prescriptivists’ Unterhosen in a twist.
[quote=“Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus, post:19, topic:686821”]
(Emphasis mine)
In translation, this sounds like the premise of a Monty Python sketch.
“Chav”? 
Second time this day I don’t understand Anglo slang.
A “chav” is a pejorative term in British English for a certain socio-economic youth subculture whose members are viewed as boorish and unsophisticated.
While we’re discussing various English slang words related to the concept of “white trash,” there’s also the Australia/New Zealand bogan. It’s a source of amusement to my Australian cousins to know there’s a “Bogan High School” a few miles down the street from me.