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Excuse me? No continental European language has the word stop in it? You should probably learn more languages before making claims like that. Stop is a word in

by merijnv 10y ago

Excuse me? No continental European language has the word stop in it? You should probably learn more languages before making claims like that. Stop is a word in Dutch (the first recognisable use of the word I could find dates back to 1287). And German has stopf. I couldn't find a date for that, because my German isn't good enough to read their etymology dictionary, but it's source is Old High Germanic, so it's safe to say that stop has been around in continental Europe in Germanic languages since Medieval time at the very least. Edit: A quick further Google search reveals that Norwegian and Danish (and thus most likely Sweden too) have the variation "stoppe" derived from Low German. Seems a bit disingenuous to claim it was adopted despite "not being an existing word" if two languages use the exact rendering on the sign and 4 others use/have words that are so closely related that they have the same spelling, but 1 or 2 additional letters. Further edit: French apparently adopted the word stop from English...in 1792

dalke 10y ago
In Swedish it's "stopp". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_sign#Stop_signs_around_the_world https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_sign#Stop_signs_around_th... shows examples of "Stop" used in Germany and Italy in the 1950s. The German Wikipedia, at https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoppschild https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoppschild , gives an example of "stop" used in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (after the German occupation of Czechoslovakia) in 1939, though it says the sign was an imported variant. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/stoppen#German https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/stoppen#German points out: > As in Dutch stoppen, the sense “to stop” is figurative from water flow being stopped by plugging. Only in this figurative meaning has the form been adopted into standard German proper, under the reinforcing influence of English to stop. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/stop https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/stop gives a list of continental European languages where 'stop' is part of the language. Nearly all borrow from the English. Not Dutch, however.
WalterBright 10y ago
German stop signs used the word "HALT" before. My German dictionary defines "stopf" as darning yarn, and "stoppen" as stop. Not quite the same spelling. Typing "stop" into French Google translate autocompletes to "stoppé". I wouldn't be in the least surprised if the American spelling crept into many European languages as a result of the sign being ubiquitous for 41 years - it would be surprising if it didn't. I wouldn't underestimate the influence on the language of the American occupation after the war, either, nor the global influence of American business since the war. English words have crept in everywhere.

by merijnv 10y ago

dalke 10y ago

In Swedish it's "stopp". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_sign#Stop_signs_around_the_world https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_sign#Stop_signs_around_th... shows examples of "Stop" used in Germany and Italy in the 1950s. The German Wikipedia, at https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoppschild https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoppschild , gives an example of "stop" used in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (after the German occupation of Czechoslovakia) in 1939, though it says the sign was an imported variant. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/stoppen#German https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/stoppen#German points out: > As in Dutch stoppen, the sense “to stop” is figurative from water flow being stopped by plugging. Only in this figurative meaning has the form been adopted into standard German proper, under the reinforcing influence of English to stop. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/stop https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/stop gives a list of continental European languages where 'stop' is part of the language. Nearly all borrow from the English. Not Dutch, however.

WalterBright 10y ago

German stop signs used the word "HALT" before. My German dictionary defines "stopf" as darning yarn, and "stoppen" as stop. Not quite the same spelling. Typing "stop" into French Google translate autocompletes to "stoppé". I wouldn't be in the least surprised if the American spelling crept into many European languages as a result of the sign being ubiquitous for 41 years - it would be surprising if it didn't. I wouldn't underestimate the influence on the language of the American occupation after the war, either, nor the global influence of American business since the war. English words have crept in everywhere.