Did George Bush steal a German word? The Nürnberger Nachrichten has an article by Evelyn Scherfenberg on German words that have been exported.

Schon auffälliger war, als George Bush 2004 einmal einen politischen Gegner in Alltagsdeutsch abkanzelte: “You are too wischiwaschi!”

The legal connection: apparently this idea that wishy-washy was borrowed from wischiwaschi comes from a book by Prof. Dr. Jutta Limbach, Ausgewanderte Wörter

It looks as if the two terms may have grown up independently in the two languages. Kluge’s etymological dictionary of German says the term means ‘verschwommenes Geschwätz’ (waffle), is pre-20th-c. and was formed on the basis of Gewäsch. The OED gives two meanings: 1. sloppy or insipid food (earliest example 1791) 2 1) feeble or poor in constitution (1703) and 2 b) Feeble or poor in quality or character; trifling, unsubstantial, trashy, ‘milk-and-watery’. †Also rarely as int. = pish! tush!

a1693 Urquhart’s Rabelais iii. xxxvi. 298 Pan. Wishy, washy; Trolly, trolly [orig. Tarabin, tarabas!]. 1797 G. Colman Heir at Law ii. ii, A lord without money be but a foolish, wishy washy kind of a thing a’ter all. 1801 T. Dibdin Il Bondocani iii. ii, None of your wishy washy sparks that mince their steps. 1867 Trollope Chron. Barset I. vii. 55 A weak, wishy-washy man, who had hardly any mind of his own to speak of. 1865 M. E. Braddon Doctor’s Wife iii, Isabel painted wishy-washy looking flowers on Bristol-board from Nature. 1893 Nation (N.Y.) 9 Feb. 106/3 A silly, wishy-washy, inconclusive+style of writing.

The English meaning makes more sense in Bush’s context. Pish! tush! is all I can say.

The London Ambulance Service is allowing its paramedics to have tea breaks, in line with EU practice (don’t they have to have coffee?). Tom Reynolds says they can still go to emergencies, but they can allow trivial cases to wait.

The Sun takes this story as an opportunity to roll out all its usual anti-EU vocabulary (even BILD doesn’t do that, does it?)

PARAMEDICS are being forced to finish tea breaks before attending 999 calls under barmy EU rules.
Ambulance staff warned patients could die after the dozy diktat comes into force today.
…
One paramedic — who did not wish to be named for fear of losing his job — said: “In other parts of Britain, like Manchester, ambulance services have opted out of the European Working Time Directive that enforces breaks.

I wonder if anyone’s collected the Sun’s EU terminology.

I was surprised to read that German public TV will be having live coverage of Prince William’s graduation parade at Sandhurst tomorrow morning, as was Daland Segler in the Frankfurter Rundschau:

Klagen über das miese Fernsehprogramm gehen stets an der Sache vorbei: Denn frei nach Goethe – “Wer vieles bringt, wird manchem etwas bringen” – findet sich im täglichen Angebot immer noch der eine oder andere Beitrag, der dem einen oder anderen zusagt. Nun aber hat die ARD eine Klientel entdeckt, die sie bislang vernachlässigt hat: die Kommissköppe.

Via Astrid Paprotta

The blogger behind Life in Translation has sticky notes to remember which party is which:

Similarly, it ought to be enough that these terms are in my termbase but somehow it isn’t. And so three sticky notes (physical paper, not electronic ones) live on the edge of my screen.
Arrendadora – LESSOR
Arrendatario – LESSEE

Franquiciante – FRANCHISOR
Franquiciado – FRANCHISEE

Fiduciaro – TRUSTEE
Fideicomitente – SETTLOR/TRUSTOR
Fideicomisario – BENEFICIARY/TRUSTEE

I suggest adding MORTGAGOR and MORTGAGEE

Googe patent search

Search of U.S. patents.

Via Streitsache

Via a referrer, I see that translationdirectory.com has a page with links to translation weblogs. Of those I don’t know, some look fairly dead, but not all. There is ¿Se habla English? by Jo-Hanna Goettsche, a native Spanish speaker from Puerto Rico living in Nebraska, and she links to an occasional blog called Twisted Tongues by Dena and Daniel Shunra and their cats in Washington State. I seem to remember them being on LANTRA-L.