Comedian Jim Gaffagin has a good skit about that.
Peter. A perfectly respectable name, in English.
In French peter is the infitive of the verb to fart.
My Dutch surname means something very VERY rude in the North of England…
Put it this way, if I ever wanted a “job” as a porn star, I’d have a name all lined up and ready to go.
Just pity my brother: his name’s Richard which invariably gets shortened to “Dick” at the best of times. (What WERE my parents THINKING!!!
:eek:
… and no, i’m not going to tell you what it is…
Well, there’s always the soft drink Pschitt, which is French onomatopeia for the sound made by escaping carbonation when you open it, but in English …
http://www.bpmlegal.com/wpschitt.html
Add to that “pet” is the French word for fart. Makes the idea of petting a pet…hehehee.
Do they sell the soft drink Sierra Mist in Germany?
If I remember my high school German, Mist = manure.
Old ethnic joke:
“I’ve been eating French dehydrated food all week. When I go to the bathroom, all I can do is Pierre.”
For awhile, I was using a smattering of French words (since that’s all I know) here and there in my English with my housemates. It was after I said, “Well, I’m going to go up and take a douche [shower]” that I cut that habit right out.
More German:
Lobster = Hummer. (may be Austrian dialect)
There is an upscale resteraunt in Vienna called “Hummer Bar” Probably the most expensive meal I’ve ever eaten.
City Hall = Rathouse…where the rats live!
<evil giggle>
I have a whole roll of wrapping paper with the word gift written all over it in lots of different and sparkly colors. I reserve it for wrapping presents to my german friends=)
There is a clothing company in Canada called “Roots” that puts its logo on most of its clothes. Their shirts were popular when I was in high school. The visiting wrestling team from New Zealand got quite a laugh from everyone wearing shirts with ROOTS on them in big letters.
Can we get a translation for those of us who haven’t bought our Yankee/Aussie phrase book? Please?
“Pu pu platter.”
Does that mean that fans of recording artist Seal are phoque-heads?
During a family trip to Germany when I was about nine, I kept giggling about how all the banks had “Sparkasse” written in big glowing letters on them. I’m slightly more mature now.
Another variation on the German trip.
Bootfahrt
(Boat trip)
In the Australian/New Zealand vernacular “roots” = “have sexual intercourse”.
Wasn’t there a tennis player with a last name that had to be pronounced very carefully, otherwise it came out as Fuck Her Over?