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]

Originally Posted by InfiniteNow

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 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"?

[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]

Originally Posted by Tormod

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]

Originally Posted by Qfwfq

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".