In the delightfully caustic The Superior Person’s Book Of Words, Peter Bowler gives us the following illustration of excessive Anglicization:
(Note: I did say “illustration” not “example”.)
I get the general idea; a couple of German names and a musical title are being literally translated. “Elizabeth Schwarzkopf” and “Klagelieder” are clear enough, but I can’t for the life of me think of what composer’s name translated into English works out to be “Gus Crusher”.
Gustav Mahler wrote “Das Klagende Lied.” Although his name would more accurately be translated Miller, a mill does crush things.
Gustav Brecher.
Gustav Mahler is probably who the writer meant, since he wrote Das Klagende Lied, “Song of Lamentation,” and Mahler means “someone who grinds,” although Gustav Brecher works also. Brecher (“crusher”) was a lesser known composer and conductor who sometimes conducted Mahler’s works as a staff conductor under Mahler in Vienna.
Mahler is the one, as I now realize.
As a job title or occupation, the German word for miller is Müller. The verb
Mahlen can mean “to mill”, “to grind”, or “to crush”, according to an online dictionary, which also hints that the word is more commonly encountered in technical and industrial contexts.
I can’t confirm that the noun Mahler exists to denote either a machine or an occupation, but I’d be surprised if, as a name, it didn’t originate from an occupation.
Huh. I’m no expert in German, but back in music school the joke was Gustav Mahler meant “Gus Painter”, not miller.
A google search of “Gustav Mahler” “Gus Painter” gets plenty of hits, but nothing really authoritative, I’ll concede.
Maler = painter.
“Maler” means “painter” in German, and it’s pronounced the same way as “Mahler”.
I used to work for a company where the president would say his favorite opera was “Aida” by Joe Green.