Treffen in Gostenhof

Ein Treffen im Nachb*zensiert*aftshaus, Gostenhof:

Wenn im August und September unser Treffpunkt, das Nachb*zensiert*aftshaus, wegen Ferien geschlossen ist, treffen wir uns in einem Biergarten um uns auch privat besser kennenzulernen. So entstanden, wenn nicht Freundschaften, so doch zumindest gute Bekanntschaften, die im täglichen Umgang mit unseren Rechnern oft sehr hilfreich waren.

12 thoughts on “Treffen in Gostenhof

  1. “it isn’t really English”? Oh yes it is.
    Just not politically correct in the 21stC English.
    The OED has it documented extensively:
    ————-
    III. Used rhetorically for English in its wider or ethnological sense, in order to avoid the later historical restriction of

    • Hi Bob,
      Well, the usage of “Scotch” by the OED very much dates it, I think, as well as putting it firmly into a narrowly defined cultural context. It’s certainly found frequently in older literature with a distinctly nationalistic flavour to it, viz. the Spectator citation, and it frequently crops up in conjunction with the “Merrie England” folk mythology, i.e. the time in England between the end of the Dark Ages and the Norman Conquest.

      But it’s an appropriate as a proxy for “British” as “Ostrogoth” would be for “Spanish”. And, as far as I’m concerned, the association with antisemitism puts it beyond the pale.

      Robin

      • Well, I put it in, although I’m sure you know more about BBCode than I do.
        It’s interesting to see the detail about WASP. Of course, this led me to check up [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Saxons]Anglo-Saxons[/url] in Wikipedia too. It says there, inter alia:

        ‘Outside Anglophone countries, both in Europe and in the rest of the world, the term “Anglo-Saxon” and its direct translations are used to refer to the Anglophone peoples and societies of Britain, the United States, and other countries such as Australia, Canada and New Zealand. The term can be used in a variety of contexts, often to identify the English-speaking world’s distinctive language, culture, technology, wealth, markets, economy, and legal systems. Local variations include the French “Anglo-Saxon” and the Spanish “anglosaj

  2. It is also sometimes used in Spanish to refer generally to northern Europeans, including the Dutch, the Germans, and the Scandinavians. Similarly, “chinos” constitute the entire population of south and east Asia apart from the “pakis”, those who look like they might come from the subcontinent and who were until recently sometimes described as “moros”, Moors. “Anglo(-)cabr

  3. “the term Anglo-Saxon was first used in French in the late 19th century, actually meaning Jewish (les financiers anglo-saxons).”

    Do you have a reference/link for this? It’s the first I’ve heard of the Jewish meaning, and I’m quite curious about it. (And somewhat alarmed that a commenter immediately accepts and assimilates it, rejecting an apparently innocent word because “the association with antisemitism puts it beyond the pale.” That kind of eagerness to be offended bothers me.)

    • Without wishing to be indiscreet, I should say that this topic started on a mailing list and that very commenter was the originator of the idea. I’ll see what I can do for a reference.
      A search on financiers anglo-saxons juive (should it have been juifs?) produced a little evidence and a note that I am prevented from seeing two of the hits in Germany, fwiw:

      >>A URL that otherwise would have appeared in response to your search, was not displayed because that URL was reported as illegal by a German regulatory body.

      Ihre Suche h

    • I think the comment that it was “first” used is possibly a misunderstanding. What this refers to is the tendency in certain French circles a hundred years or more ago to use “anglo-saxon” as a codeword for “Jewish”, exemplified in particular by the stock phrase “les financiers anglo-saxons”. What I can’t remember is exactly where I read this first, but I think it was a serious print periodical (rather than a book) probably about 10 to 15 years ago. Thinking back to what I read regularly then (other than the FT), it could have been the Economist or possibly the LRB (no time for the LRB nowadays, sadly).

      If I can recollect the source with some more accuracy, I’ll drop you an e-mail via your immensely admirable blog.

      In general, though, I get pretty narked when people talk about “Anglo-Saxon accounting” as if it were some sort of cultural heritage. After all, the same people don’t refer to French accounting as “Teutonic accounting” or Spanish accounting as “Visigoth accounting” – or even, heaven forbid, as “Moorish accounting :-)

  4. [i]this topic started on a mailing list and that very commenter was the originator of the idea[/i]

    Hmm.

    [i]I am prevented from seeing two of the hits in Germany[/i]

    Hmph.

  5. ////’Outside Anglophone countries, both in Europe and in the rest of the world, the term “Anglo-Saxon” and its direct translations are used to refer to the Anglophone peoples and societies of Britain, the United States, and other countries such as Australia, Canada and New Zealand. The term can be used in a variety of contexts, often to identify the English-speaking world’s distinctive language, culture, technology, wealth, markets, economy, and legal systems. Local variations include the French “Anglo-Saxon” and the Spanish “anglosaj

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