Word meanings and usage.........

[InfiniteNow]

So, when someone sneezes, it's common to say, "Bless you." This is a shortened version of "God Bless you." I've heard various proposals for how this term came into vogue.

 

One example is that before many of our medicinal advances, a sneeze could indicate that you had caught something deadly, and it was the wish of the person who heard the sneeze to send you their best wishes (i.e. they didn't want you to die from whatever it was causing the sneeze). So, to do this, they asked for your blessing. "Bless you."

 

 

Have you heard any other stories for the various reactions to a person's sneeze? Have any thoughts of your own on the matter?

[infamous]

 

 

Have you heard any other stories for the various reactions to a person's sneeze? Have any thoughts of your own on the matter?

The common response to a sneeze is often the word Gesundheit, a German word which translated means; 'Health'. From one German to another, this single spoken word carries with it the wish, 'may you be blessed with health'.....................Infy

[hallenrm]

Here are a couple of very interesting quote on Words and there meaning:

 

"A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanged, it is the skin of a living thought and may vary greatly in colour and content according to the circumstances and the time in which it is used."

 

Oliver Wendell Holmes

 

"Words to me were magic. You could say a word and it could conjure up all kinds of images or feelings or a chilly sensation. It is amazing that words have such power"

 

Amy Tan

[Qfwfq]

They say 'health' over here too and in France, I suppose in many other countries.

[Tormod]

In Norway we usually become very quiet when someone sneezes :hihi: but sometimes we recover in time to say "prosit" which I frankly have no idea what means.

[Qfwfq]

That's another German word!

 

I know it because they call a toast "ein Prosit" and, when they can't think of anything more original, they sometimes say just the single word and then drink...

[Tormod]

But what does it mean then? "To hell with it"? :hihi:

[Chacmool]

When someone sneezes, in Spanish you say: "Jesús". It means exactly what you think it does, and I suppose it's also a blessing of some kind.

[Qfwfq]

But what does it mean then?

According to Das Pons Woerterbuch 'prosit', or just 'prost', is an interjection and thus not so translateable but is somewhat like wishing well, or good health. It seems people also say "prosit Neujahr" and "prosit Mahlzeit". When drinking it's like saying "to our health" and I guess it got substantivated to mean a toast.

[Tormod]

I guess it got substantivated to mean a toast.

 

Aha - so "prost" and "prosit" is basically the same? So even the Germans and Austrians toast "to good health".

[alexander]

cool, when someone sneezes in russian you say "будь здоров" which means just that. (be healthy)

 

what i find funny is that bless comes from the middle english word blessain which literaly means "make sacred or holy with blood"... you figure what bless you actually means :xparty:

[Qfwfq]

Compared with a plain 'd', how is the 'дь' pronounced? I find it interesting because that's one of the various affinities between Russian and Farsi. Which reminded me that in Iran they say "The bear exploded!" and the sneezer usually answers "Tomorrow will be a holiday!" (I'm not sure of the spelling, as well as too lazy to find the right unicode :)).

[infamous]

During my time spent in college class, I once got into a heated disagreement with my English Literature professor. I had used the word however in a manner which he had judged improper grammar. It's regretable, but to this day, I'm unable to remember exactly how I put this word to use. Nevertheless, I remember being convinced that he was being much too strict in his interpretation about the many uses of this word.

 

Webster's defines however as:

 

in whatever manner

to whatever degree

nevertheless

also

 

I can think of a couple other uses for this word and following, I have listed them:

 

on the other hand

in any case

in any event

 

Can anyone of you members add to this list?

 

BTW, that was the only class where I received a mark less than a (:xx:. When one understands that this professor failed over half the class, I suppose I should be grateful that he gave me a (D)...........Infy

[Qfwfq]

However, who cares about marks? :lol:

[infamous]

However, who cares about marks? :doh:

I must however mention; Prospective employers.............Infy

[HappytheStripper]

So, when someone sneezes, it's common to say, "Bless you." This is a shortened version of "God Bless you." I've heard various proposals for how this term came into vogue.

 

One example is that before many of our medicinal advances, a sneeze could indicate that you had caught something deadly, and it was the wish of the person who heard the sneeze to send you their best wishes (i.e. they didn't want you to die from whatever it was causing the sneeze). So, to do this, they asked for your blessing. "Bless you."

 

 

Have you heard any other stories for the various reactions to a person's sneeze? Have any thoughts of your own on the matter?

 

 

Hi All :)

Its interesting how words mean different things to different people, to a certain extent there is a universal definition, and the other side is a cultural and personal definition.

 

Here in NZ we say 'bless you' also when someone sneezes not because we wish life upon another person, moreso because it is a form of habit, something we all grow with over the years.

 

Upon reading his article I am reminded of a nursery rhyme ''Ring Around the Rosie' .. Every child has happily joined hands with friends and recited the familiar nursery rhyme, "Ring around a rosie, a pocket full of posies. Ashes, ashes, we all fall down." Few people realize to what this seemingly happy little nursery rhyme actually refers to .. This nursery rhyme began about 1347 and derives from the not-so-delightful Black Plague, which killed over twenty-five million people in the fourteenth century. Wikipedia say 1665 and the great plague of London ..

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_Around_the_Rosie

 

The "ring around a rosie" refers to the round, red rash that is the first symptom of the disease. The practice of carrying flowers and placing them around the infected person for protection is described in the phrase, "a pocket full of posies." "Ashes" is a corruption or imitation of the sneezing sounds made by the infected person. Finally, "we all fall down" describes the many dead resulting from the disease..

 

The words 'god bless you' refer to this tragedy in time many years ago ..

 

Love to all xxxxxxx Ashley

[Qfwfq]

Oddly enough Ashley, the wiki you link to describes that explanation as a myth and gives a link to this debunking source.

 

I'm not so sure though about this debunking, for a number of reasons:

• AFAIK most nursery rhymes have rather bleak origins and I'm not sure they were usually written so soon after they had started being taught.
  
• The words most explainable by the plague probably date back to the later one in London, 1665.
  
• It isn't surprising to find many variants and the ones least related to plague are only a few examples of chants with similar cadence and tune used throught Europe for a similar child's play, so the one invented after the plague probably just ran into many variations and got mixed with other existing ones.
  
• The explanation of "ashes" and "a-tishoo" are both plausible and these could have both been competing ideas right from the start.