4 ms·
I was surprised to find the word "to abseil" being known in the UK. It clearly is of German origin and used literally (eg. to descend a mountain on a rope = Sei
by jhoechtl 5y ago
I was surprised to find the word "to abseil" being known in the UK. It clearly is of German origin and used literally (eg. to descend a mountain on a rope = Seil) as well as figuratively (to sneak out of an unpleasant situation).
- floodle 5y agoThere are a lot of very obviously German words used in the UK quite commonly: kitsch, poltergeist, doppelganger, angst, karabiner, flak...
- dagw 5y agoBoth the activity and the word seems common in the UK. We did it at least a couple of times in school as part of some "team building" adventure day. Specifically it meant lowering yourself down a vertical wall using rope, a climbing harness and a figure-8.
- leipert 5y agoThere quite a few climbing related words in English that come from German, according to this list: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_German_expressions_in_English https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_German_expressions_i... There are also a lot of „expedition“ related words (e.g. Rucksack) that made their way to Japanese. IIRC the Germans did a lot of expeditions/Mountaineering in the Himalaya, etc. and I assume that this is how these words transferred to English/Japanese.
- zwp 5y agoI wasn't aware of the figurative connotation, I will remember this next time I'm retreating from a climb. "HMS carabiner" is also common amongst anglophone climbers (for the "Halbmastwurfsicherung" knot you might use as an alternative to your sticht plate).
- kcartlidge 5y agoI have to admit that I (British) can't even think of another word to use in place of abseil, that word is so common. I've always presumed that was the only word there is for that particular activity.