“Console“
Hallo ihr lieben
welcome back to our EPIC calendar.
And today, you might have a chance to win a console.
“OMG, the PLAYSTATION 5?!?!?”
Yes, the very same. And you can win it. I just don’t know where. Not here, that’s for sure.
But I do have something for you (besides really bad puns). Something that comes in handy after yet another super hard hard quiz like the one of yesterday – a bit of consolation.
Or in German:
der Trost
Looks an awful lot like trust, and the two are indeed related. Back a few hundred years, Trost could still be a general sense of trust in the future. But then it shifted toward an idea of “giving someone some confidence” and toward cheering up and became solace.
Oh and by the way, the words to console and solace actually go back to Ancient Greek word the soothingly ancient Indo-European root selh which was about reconciliation. And without there being any evidence, I’ll go ahead and say that there MIGHT be a connection to the equally ancient root sol, which was about the idea of whole. That’s where solid and consolidate come from and also the noun console, that I am milking for puns today. Again… there’s no evidence for there being a connection.But it would make a LOT of sense. I mean, consoling someone does kind of mean consolidating them, putting them back together.
Anyway, time for some examples..
- “Sei nicht traurig, Thomas.”
“Ich brauche keinen Trost. Ich brauche eine Console.” - “Don’t be sad, Thomas.”
“I don’t need consolation, I need a console.”
- Katzenvideos können in schweren Zeiten Trost spenden. (fixed expression)
- Cat videos can give solace in hard times.
- Thomas kauft sich einen teuren Whisky – als Trostpflaster.
- Thomas buys himself an expensive Whisky – as a consolation.
Lit.: “solace patch/plaster”
And of course we also need to mention the verb trösten, which means to cönsö… I mean console.
- Maria hat Thomas getröstet.
- Maria consoled Thomas.
And there’s actually also a prefix version of it – vertrösten. And this has shifted in meaning somewhat because it’s basically what I do to with my interns about paying them … telling them that it’ll happen soon-ish. This use is based on the away-idea of ver- … you console someone away.
- Emanuel vertröstet seine Praktikanten.
- Emanuel staves off/puts off his interns.
(I think to stave of is the English translation, but I took that straight from the dictionary, so I’m not sure)
I do provide free team beer, though, as some Trost. And I’ll take one of those right now, so … Prost :).
That’s it for today. I hope you enjoyed it. Have a great day and see you tomorrow.
Emanuel vertröstet seine Praktikanten.
Emanuel staves off/puts off his interns.
Putting off has the feel of sending someone away. To stave off feels more like they are storming the castle and we are keeping them at bay.
Just how I “feel” the meaning.
Hmmm, maybe then “put off” is the better choice. “vertrösten” doesn’t have a lot of energy involved :)
Miriam Webster defines “stave off” in the following way: transitive verb. to ward off (something adverse) : forestall, trying to stave off disaster.
As opposed to their definition of put off: postpone something. “they can’t put off a decision much longer”
As you said, there isn’t a lot of energy to vertrösten so put off is probably a better translation. You are certainly not trying to ward them off. Put off can also mean losing interest or enthusiasm. I was put off by the thought of what I would need to do to make it happen.
Good old English word with multiple meanings that don’t seem to have any relationship to each other.
stave off is correct.
Wow, this is really controversial, it seems :).
You can also “shine someone on”. It’s always used with pronouns:
We asked for our pay and he totally shined us on.
Don’t shine me on! You know you owe me big time.
Oh, that sounds like it could be a perfect match.
I hope that’s not a regional thing.
It is, I’m afraid. Never heard the expression ‘shined on us’, and would have no idea what it meant if I did …
California in the house!
Would this shine be related to German scheinen?
I’d say yes. At least the “normal” to shine is.
I never heard it before. Saw it in Urban Dictionary just now and thought it was maybe something new, but it looks like it goes back to at least the 60’s.
Funny how much it sounds like Schein (doch nur zum Schein, denn die Massen wollen betrogen sein).
I agree with the commenters for whom “stave off” falsch klingt. “Stave off” means you are averting or holding off something unpleasant, usually by introducing a delay: hunger, a crisis, a deficit, etc. You may want to stave off the financial problems associated with paying the interns, but staving off the interns themselves sounds wrong. “Putting off” the interns creates an ambiguity: this could also mean alienating the interns, pissing them off. I can’t quite think of an English expression that means placate + delay.
As others have suggested, I think “fob of” captures this perfectly.
My Concise Oxford dictionary defines its meaning as to “deceive someone into accepting something inferior”.
My Australian Concise Oxford says: “palm something inferior off on someone”.
Both of these seem appropriate here. :)
Interestingly, the etymology indicates the word as coming from the German “foppen”.
Actually, “vertrösten” is really about the aspect of time. You tell them to “come back later”. So fob off seems to be a bit different. Still, it’d probably be good enough for a translation.
100 percent on the quiz. Yay ., Merry Christmas and a very Happy healthy New Year to everyone!!!!
Henceforth, you may call yourself “Master of the Prefix” :).
Hallo lieber Emanuel,
Wow ! Wie könnte ich einbilden dass Konsole hat mit Sol zu tun ! Das Wort Sol bedeutet die Oberflächliche Schicht der Erde auf Fransösche, und Söhne auf Espaniche . Diese kommt aus Lateiniche Mythologie, nämelich , die Göttin Söhne .
Das ist tröstlich dass es kommt darauf etwas solides auf die Dinge oder die Menschen zu machen (zusammenbringen ) , dennoch , um die Welt mehr Solidair macht!
Bis bald
Moment, du meinst “Sonne”(soleil), und nicht “Söhne” (fils) oder?
Eigentlich würde “console” gut mit Sonne-Sol passen. Wenn man die Sonne sieht, wird man froher :)
If your intention is to avoid paying those poor, hardworking interns it could be that you fob them off.
Fob off is super British though. An American would never say that.
I give them shelter (for 12 hours a day) and they learn a lot about coffee. That’s valuable, too :).
What does fob mean?
To fob off is more like getting rid of someone who’s complaining by giving them a flimsy excuse that they don’t really believe, and it would be the victim that would use it. “I told him I wouldn’t work any longer without pay but I was fobbed off with a promise of pay next month.” Being bad at complaining and then moaning about it afterwards seems very British.
To stave off would be for hunger or boredem, and possibly only ever those two. Staving off a person doesn’t sound right.
I do agree that complaining of being fobbed off is more likely than admitting to doing it, but am sure there are circumstances in which it could be (almost?) a boast. Interestingly, Cambridge [online] Dictionary’s only example sentence is “Well, he wants the report ready by tomorrow but I can always fob him off with some excuse.”
While not recognised by an American, I think the expression is alive and well in Australia and New Zealand as well as in Britain.
Okay, based on that definition, it’d be a PERFECT match for “vertrösten”
Sorry. That should be perfectly, and setting. Put off is as you noted the more usual term but stave off in this context is perfect.
Interesting Adventure. You’re right to use staves off, but it is used for an action. You staved off paying your interns. You mostly stave off hunger nowadays. Its a bit old-fashioned but perfect good. I think it comes from the practive of setiing sharpened stakes (staves) into the ground at an angle to keep enemies away.
I disagree, I’m afraid. Stave off sounds really strange to me in this context. In fact, I can’t recall ever having heard it used except in the context of “staving off hunger”.
Now we need a region check :). Who’s from what part of the English speaking world?
I’m an English English native speaker.
I started out around the Great Lakes of N America, and currently live in Washington State. My family, relatively recent immigrants from England (grandfather), often used “Stave off hunger, stave off the wolf at the door,” mostly in humourous exaggeration.
Oh, that origin makes perfect sense. German has the word “der Stab” for long thin wooden pole. Stab – stave… quite typical.
To stave something off is an expression not often used today, but then English has had a marked shrinkage of its vocabulary since the 19th century (General US Grant once said his efforts to recover the wounded from a battlefield were NUGATORY, and General Robert E Lee, in a letter to his wife, said he did not have the time to EXPATIATE on a subject. Many modern Americans would not know what these useful words mean). But “stave off ” certainly can be used for all kinds of situations where you are, with effort, keeping a pressing problem at bay, and not only hunger. By the way, lots of Americans can’t tell the difference between it’s and its, and a distressing number now say “have went” instead of “have gone.” We tend you use worse and worse grammar.
‘Staves’ was originally the plural of ‘staff’ (in sense of a wooden pole), and the singular ‘stave’ (and the verb) was a back-formation from that.
Sind Azubis auch als Praktikanten zu beschreiben?
Oder sind Azubis nur Blaukittler ?
Und weiter eine dringende Frage–
Ist PROST!! nicht eigentlich manchmal auch ein Trost. ? !! :> )
Nee, Azubis sind bezahlt (wenn auch schlecht) und gehen auch zur Schule und so. Viel offizieller als Praktikanten.
Und ja… zum Trost ein Prost ist okay.
Interns bei euch sind dann überhaupt nie bezahlt?
In den USA gibt es internships mit und ohne Bezahlung.
Doch, das gibt es hier schon auch. Das kann jede Firma machen, wie sie will. Aber zumindest in der Medienbranche wird selten bezahlt, denn es gibt mehr Praktikanten als Praktika.