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xg15 • today at 12:31 PM • 5 replies • view on HN

> In German, “der” means “the.” “Wiener” means “of Vienna (Austria).” Although the English “to sling” probably traces back to Old Norse’s “slynja,” meaning “to hurl,” the German verb “shlingen” means “to wolf or scarf down,” as in food.

Yes, as a German, I was appropriately confused and expected some horrific contraption to get better in hot-dog eating contests or something like that.

But that's nice too.


Replies

SoleilAbsolu • today at 5:20 PM

> expected some horrific contraption to get better in hot-dog eating contests or something like that.

KSAAS - Kobayashi Shake As A Service (TM)

shevy-java • today at 1:02 PM

But there is no german verb called "shlingen".

Does the person who wrote this, speak german?

I assume "schlingen" was meant, but this sounds more like "etwas herunterschlingen" aka eating quickly; that was mentioned via "scarf down, as in food", but to me it sounds more like a description of the object that is held here, like a sling.

But why would that be associated with Vienna, anyway? Nothing like that exists in Vienna really. Also I am not sure about that explanation; to sling makes more sense with hurling something in this context. And the thing looks like a huge slinger. Nobody is opening the mouth to eat everything coming out of that thing right?

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croes • today at 4:34 PM

For further explanation Wiener means Wiener sausage and is a kind of Frankfurter sausage.

In Austria a Wiener is a different kind of sausage and the German Wiener is called Frankfurter

jareklupinski • today at 12:57 PM

[flagged]