Knowing relations between words can help understand their meanings and build a more connected vocabulary network. Here, you can explore parents and offspring and discover the whole family.
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Sources for Etymology:
- Check "wort" on DWDS.de
Biggest German Dictionary, great for etymology, usage frequency and collocations) - "wort" on Wiktionary (English version)
(For etymological connections across European languages. Not always accurate) - Etymonline.com - Origins of English words
My favorite source for the origin of English words.
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I’m curious about “jemanden beim Wort nehmen”
Does this phrase cover both of these:
1 You believe someone is / will do what they say they will
i.e. “to take someone at their word”
e.g. I took him at his word he was a millionare (he wasn’t a millionare and I am too trusting)
2
You insist / force someone to do what they said (when they haven’t)
i.e. to hold someone to their word”
e.g. I will hold him to his word that he buys me a beer next time (I will make sure he buys me a beer)
But looking at the definitions of the german i was unclear if it was both or one of these
Great question.
The main focus is definitely 1) and there is no notion of “forcing” but it can include guilt-tripping someone into doing something by quoting their words or saying “You gave your word.”
There’s also a notion of taking someone “literally”. So if someone says “I’d do anything to get a beer now.” and you drop your pants (Berghain intensifies).
cool, thanks for the elucidating explanation!
I found this nice article about the plurals: https://www.spiegel.de/kultur/zwiebelfisch/zwiebelfisch-abc-worte-woerter-a-307445.html
thanks for sharing that