German language question: "Auf Gut Gluck", as in the German version of Google

Factual Questions
1

I’ve noticed that in the German country-specific version of Google here uses the phrase “Auf Gut Glück!” where the English language versions say “I Feel Lucky.” I’m assuming that the sense of auf gut Glück is about the same as I feel lucky in English.

I’m only reasonably fluent in German, but am pretty sure I’ve got all the adjective inflections down pat. Auf Gut Glück doesn’t sound grammatically correct, because I would expect the adjective gut to have the strong neuter accusative ending /-es/: auf gutes Glück.

Can someone with a better knowledge of German than mine parse this for me?

2

It has been a while since I did German. However, I believe “gutes” to do with the declension as it relates to “Gluck.” Also, the preposition ‘auf’ makes it…accusative?

I’m doing Latin now. I can’t do German cases, lol. :frowning:

3

Technically, you’re correct, it should be “Auf gutes Glück”, but it’s a standing expression.
In this context, the correct version would sound weird to us.

(For instance, in the expression “Hab und Gut”, the word “Hab” doesn’t even exist, but we would definitely not say “Haben und Gut”)

Also, what is that button supposed to do anyway? I always use the search bar, but I don’t really see the point. Is it like Wikipedia’s article of the day or something?

4

The “I feel lucky”-button opens the top search result directly without displaying the result list.

5

Yes, it’s a standing expression (my guess is that it either predated current grammatical rules, or is a corruption of the contraction Auf gut’ Glück.)

BTW as rendered in the thread title it sounds more like an invitation to imbibe :wink:

Clicking the ‘I Feel Lucky’ button does the same thing as clicking on ‘Search’ then clicking on the first organic search result.

6

At first glance, I thought it meant you’re carrying a Glock. :stuck_out_tongue:

7

It’s not current usage any more, but in poetic German (especially if you have trouble getting the meter right), it is permissible to drop the -es adjective ending in the neutral gender. In present-day German, this only survives in a couple of standing expressions and proverbs - other examples are gut Ding will Weile haben (doing something well takes its time) or the line from an old folk song, kein schöner Land in dieser Zeit (no land which is more beautiful in these times) -, but you see it occasionally in poetry.