adjective \err-‘kel-tət\ German
: to have a cold
Jade and I both have colds, and Halia was so sucky today that even though she doesn’t have our trademark runny noses, I suspect she is also fighting it off. We spent the entire day indoors, and I snoozed intermittantly whenever the girls were otherwise occupied. I’ve always found that sleep is the best medicine. So to heck with the dishes.
It seems I’ve been in mommyland long enough to lose my mind, because I find myself thinking that a mild cold wouldn’t be so bad if I didn’t have to actually parent. Having a good excuse to do nothing but eat, sleep, drink lovely herbal teas, and read in one’s brief waking moments… that all sounds rather attractive, even if it does come with a soundtrack of occasional nose-blowing and sneezing. (From which you can surmise: my cold is far from severe. Thank goodness.)
The geek in me also rears its head today, thinking “erkältet” is really a rather nice term for having a cold. French has the similar “enrhumé”. I think if we could transfer these directly to English, we’d have to say “encolded”, as if one were enfolded in one’s cold, embraced or imprisoned, depending on one’s point of view and mindset.
It delights me that the previously unheard-of “earworm” (which absolutely must come from the German “Ohrwurm”) has made its appearance in the English language in the last few years. Perhaps there is also hope for encolded.
Now it’s off to bed for me, so I can get myself unencolded.
“Gute Besserung” – to both you & Jade (hopefully, little Halia will be spared) !! Enjoy your “rest” while you get some, though !!
♥ ♥ ♥
Too bad on can rarely track the true origin of useful or accurate phrases. I know that as endemic early technology adopter I used the term “INAC” (Indian and Northern Affairs Canada) in official Hydro communications the day the name change was announced, while everyone else, including the Department itself, still called it “DIAND” for quite some time. I will never know whether I started a trend or whether many people independently got the same idea. After all, for sticklers, it should have been IANAC, but INAC somehow stuck. How about some other candidates for entry of Germanicisms into the English language, like:
enloved (verliebt)= in love
spanned (gespannt) = I cannot think of an English word for this – “taut with excited anticipation” or something along those lines
The you (Das Du) = A German professor at UofT once told me the best you can hope for in English would be “the ego projected into the other person”
unlucked (verunglückt)= had an accident
side jump (Seitensprung) = ah, we’ll leave this one, it’s supposed to be a family blog.
far woe or far sickness (Fernweh) = itchy feet (interestingly, Leo translates this term into English als “wanderlust”, so talk about “getting from the rain into the eave”, ahem, I mean “jumping from the fire into the frying pan”.
Feel better Mama! It’s a shame that motherhood doesn’t come with sick days, or extra arms, or a clone for that matter.
Oh, I so hear ya! I have often thought, “Yes, the suffering of a good cold would be worth it if I could just stay in bed for the day and let someone else look after things.” Of course, we all know that in the real world Moms are the only ones who are supposed to fight through it rather than take to their beds and rest. Pfft!!
Hmmm, this is sort of akin to the times I think teaching would be great if there were no kids! (Like on teacher work days where we just get to hang out with our colleagues and not actually TEACH!) 🙂 Feel better, both, or all, of you!
I would love to know where is this magical land where non-mothers can just rest and read and sleep when they have a cold. I know I sure don’t live in it. 😦
Sorry, Scientific Chick, I don’t mean to imply that non-mothers have it easy. I know we all have really busy lives. If I didn’t have kids, I know I would have long filled my life with work or hobbies that would use up my time and energy. As it stands, though, if I took parenting out of the equation, and all else stayed equal, I’d have a lot of time on my hands… especially since I have a right to sick days at my job!
Aww…I hope you and Jade both feel better soon and that little Halia doesn’t get sick!!