While listening to the German version of Radio Praha this morning I heard them taking about Schlittschuh laufen and wondered what this might involve. I guessed that it had something to do with sliding – Schlitt has a deliciously slidey sound and feel to it – and might be skating or skiing. It is in fact (ice) skating: Schlitten = sledge, sled, or big car; Schuh = shoe, and laufen = to run, go, walk.
Schlitten also appears in:
– Pferdeschlitten = (horse-drawn) sleigh
– Rodelschlitten = toboggan
– Rennschlitten = bobsleigh
– Schlitten fahren = to go tobogganing
– mit jdm Schlitten fahren = to have sb on the carpet, to bawl sb out
– Schreibmaschinenschlitten = carriage (in printer), cradle
– ein toller Schlitten = a fancy car
– Schlittenbahn = toboggan run
– Schlittenhund = sledge/sled dog; husky
Are there similarly slidey words for skating/sledging/skiing in other languages?
Interesting that English has a single word, ‘skate’, whilst German uses a compound, given that England generally has milder winters (and hence, before the invention of the heat pump and skating rinks, fewer opportunities for skating) than Germany. But then, German uses a compund for ‘gloves’ (Handschuhe), so perhaps it’s not so surprising.
Swedish has a similar word skridsko (with a silent d) from an older skrittsko. It’s probably a loan from Low German. Skrida means to move in a slow, delicate, gliding manner. It comes from the word skritt which means ‘step’ and is nowadays mostly used about horses.
There’s several derivative words with the meaning ‘to ice skate’: skrilla, skricka, skrinna.
@ David Eger: The Online Etymology Dictionary says…
“ice skate” 1660s, skeates “ice skates,” from Dutch schaats (plural schaatsen), a singular mistaken in English for plural, from Middle Dutch schaetse. The word and the custom were brought to England after the Restoration by exiled followers of Charles II who had taken refuge in Holland.
The Dutch word is from Old North French escache “a stilt, trestle,” related to Old French eschace “stilt” (French échasse), from Frankish *skakkja “stilt” or a similar Germanic source (compare Frisian skatja “stilt”)”