# What have you learned today?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-learned-today/955526>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [December 4, 2021, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-learned-today/955526 "2021-12-04T22:44:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 10

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**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\
**Post date:** [January 22, 2023, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-learned-today/955526/10 "2023-01-22T15:11:55Z")

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I saw this thread this morning: [I fell on my keister yesterday](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-fell-on-my-keister-yesterday/978574). Having taken German in high school and college, I thought it was spelled wrong. In German, _ie_ makes the _ee_ sound, and _ei_ makes the _eye_ sound. (_Ei_, by the way, is the German word for _egg_. But I digress.)

I found out that _Kiste_, pronounced _kee-steh_, is a German word for a satchel/suitcase/chest, especially one secured with straps and a lock. It’s from the Latin _ciste_, from which we get the English word _chest_. _Kiste_, meaning _buttocks_, [is recorded in Hans Ostwald’s _Rinnsteinsprache_ (_Gutter Speech_ ), a slang dictionary from 1906](https://www.wordorigins.org/big-list-entries/keister). The English word _keister_ is attested to in 1881, as a name of a certain conman.

So while it’s not clear how _keister_, as in a locked satchel, became a slang word for the buttocks, it _is_ plain to see how the English word _keister_, pronounced _kee-ster_ came from the similarly-pronounced German word _Kiste_.

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