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bless you

English translation: gesundheit (in DE but used in EN too)


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GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
English term or phrase:bless you
English translation:gesundheit (in DE but used in EN too)
Entered by: Ltemes
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21:05 Aug 31, 2004
English to English translations [Non-PRO]
Linguistics
English term or phrase: bless you
How do you say ''bless you'' to/for a child/babie in another way? Someone told me there's a specific term/idiom for it but I don't know it.

Many Thanks

Li

Li
Li
Gesundheit ("good health").
Explanation:
If you're refering to the expression you hear in the U.S. when another person sneezes, "Gesundheit" is common enough. Yes, even though it's in another language one often hears it. It has become part of the vernacular now.


Gesundheit

(guh-ZOONT-heyt) German for “good health.” Like the English phrase “Bless you,” it is conventionally said to someone who has just sneezed. This reflects the superstition that a sneeze can cause the soul to fly out of the body; saying the phrase prevents this from happening. 1


The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. Edited by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil. Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Selected response from:

Ltemes
United States
Local time: 13:49
Grading comment
I still think there's another term for it referred patricularly to children. Thank you all for helping out.
3 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
3 +4achoo or kerchoo
Deborah Workman
3 +4bless you
Mark Nathan
4 +2Gesundheit ("good health").
Ltemes
5a-tishoocjperera


Discussion entries: 2





  

Answers


25 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +2
Gesundheit ("good health").


Explanation:
If you're refering to the expression you hear in the U.S. when another person sneezes, "Gesundheit" is common enough. Yes, even though it's in another language one often hears it. It has become part of the vernacular now.


Gesundheit

(guh-ZOONT-heyt) German for “good health.” Like the English phrase “Bless you,” it is conventionally said to someone who has just sneezed. This reflects the superstition that a sneeze can cause the soul to fly out of the body; saying the phrase prevents this from happening. 1


The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. Edited by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil. Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.


Ltemes
United States
Local time: 13:49
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish, Native in SpanishSpanish
PRO pts in category: 16
Grading comment
I still think there's another term for it referred patricularly to children. Thank you all for helping out.

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
neutral  Mark Nathan: yes, but not particularly with children
5 mins
  -> I guess that would depend.. my mom said that to us when we were kids, but it would depend on the household...

neutral  tygru: yeah, only with sneezing though, whereas 'bless you' tends to have a bit of a broader meaning IMHO
41 mins
  -> yeah, did you read the first line of my answer..... ?

neutral  humbird: Did you read asker's note? He does not need a German expression!!
6 hrs
  -> did you read my note? it's part of the vernacular. argh!

agree  Refugio: Of course we use it in English, and to children, probably even more commonly said than 'bless you'.
6 hrs
  -> Thank you, Ruth. I noticed two of the above colleagues who commented on my answer are not native speakers of English. Therein lies the confusion.

agree  Kristina Thorne: This is used in English, German or not.
8 hrs
  -> Thank you Kristina. Agree fully.
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26 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +4
bless you


Explanation:
I do not know of any substitute expressions in English.
There is a children's nursery rhyme to do with sneezing that is very popular with our two-year-old (you are supposed to dance around in a circle holding hands and then "all fall down"):

Ring-a-ring o’ roses,

A pocket full of posies,

A-tishoo, a-tishoo!

We all fall down.

Mummy in the teapot,

Daddy in the cup,

Baby in the saucer,

We all jump up.

Ring-a-ring o’ roses,

A pocket full of posies,

A-tishoo, a-tishoo!

We all fall down.

The cows are in the meadow,

Eating buttercups,

A-tishoo, a-tishoo!

We all jump up.


Mark Nathan
Local time: 19:49
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 32

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Orla Ryan: :)
14 mins

agree  Hacene: yup, a-tissue please, lol
1 hr

agree  Chiara di Benedetto Brown: yeah, people say bless you to kids just like adults.
4 hrs

neutral  Refugio: I have always heard, ashes, ashes, we all fall down (referring to the burning of corpses during the plague in London).
6 hrs
  -> Both versions exist as you can see on google. A-tishoo is also a reference to the plague, it would be the first sign that you were a victim.

neutral  Ramesh Madhavan: Agree with Ruth
7 hrs

agree  John Bowden: It's definitely "atishoo" in the UK - where the ryme originated. "Ashes" is a later mis-hearing, which I've never heard in the UK.
6 days
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1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5
a-tishoo


Explanation:
I think is what you are looking for. It appears in Andrew's answer, but he didn't quite quote it as the actual target term...

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Note added at 1 hr 25 mins (2004-08-31 22:31:30 GMT)
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Sorry, Mark\'s answer (not Andrew\'s - I don\'t know where that came from!)

cjperera
Local time: 19:49
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 8
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4 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +4
achoo or kerchoo


Explanation:
I don't know that these are substitutes for bless you, there is none particular to children that I know of, but adults often mimic children or repeat words to them to teach them concepts. It's not unusual to hear a parent say to a child who sneezes, say something across the lines of, "Oh, achoo!" or, "Oh, kerchoo!" But they usually follow this with, "Bless you." In my household when I was a child, people said, "Gesundheit," also, but then my father was of German extraction.

Deborah Workman
United States
Local time: 13:49
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 8

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
neutral  humbird: Gesundheit is used in America, but never been a mainstream expression as you pointed out. Maybe popular only among people of German ancestry and light-hearted copycats.
2 hrs

agree  Refugio: Susan, where have you been? Gesundheit is everywhere, at least in the US.
3 hrs

agree  Mark Nathan: a good point - there is baby talk and then there is "bless you". I also agree that while "Gesundheit" is common it does depend a bit on your ancestry/culture etc
6 hrs

agree  Christine Andersen: Gesundheit was impossible in my post-war childhood, but I've definitely heard it recently in families without strong German connections, though not necessarily said to children. Long live globalism and 'entente'!!
10 hrs

agree  Tehani
11 hrs
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