Money in German means Geld.
(To) geld in English means to castrate.
A gelded horse in German is a Wallach.
A Wallach in English is a gelding.
Therefore: money is a gelding, hm?
Last question for tonight: How do geldings reproduce?
No clue?
Ask your trusted banker.
And to verify your banker's answer, ask your repesentative.
Ah now that's true!
ReplyDeleteAs for asking a banker if he can reproduce I think more people will be telling them to go forth and multiply (as per the euphemism for sex and travel) given what they have done to teh world economy....
Sean - I've been told, quite often, that I'm a bright woman. In French and English. Myself, I would just say:fairly bright. There are a few gray areas in my financial understanding. That's probably why I don't truly get what you and Jams are saying. But I'm sure that it means something very deep and very true. After all, you both have proven often that you have a sound judgement. Thus, as I'm meeting my banker on Monday to discuss the health of my investments, I intend to bring post and comment to her, and she'll clarify for me your mysterious words. BTW, she's from Austria. So geld will not be too challenging to her.
ReplyDeleteI live in interesting times.
À votre santé, gentlemen!
I'm with Claudia on this except I've no investments left.
ReplyDeleteGeld is also Dutch for money....
ReplyDeleteGelden, or 'laten gelden' in Dutch means: you show your power.
Linguistics and philology are interesting, or not?
In soccer the Dutch say: wij laten ons gelden (we let to show our power) with the Orange Lion.
Now, my bank, the Dutch ING has that Orange lion as their market symbol. In Turkey, ING took over Oyak Bank (militairy bank) and the Golden Lion shows its pride all over the ING building in Istanbul's Maslak (Mashattan)...
It roars peacefully..)) It shows off...(we don't can translate that in English.)!
The roaring Lion will awake in South Africa and will not 'zich laten gelden' but shows its power, in beauty!.)!
@Calum - Investments: money you save when you're young, for your old age (instead of spending it on fun and foolish things), and then lose when you're old because the younger world has disrupted the world economy.
ReplyDeleteThe less one has, the sounder one sleeps. It's only paper money, anyhow!
It's not even paper, or even coins, these days, but a mere electronic concept - a series of credit and debit lines held on billions of computers. And the totals don't equal, as Greece has just found out, and we're all beginning to find out, day by day.
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ReplyDeleteExcellent point even if I've missed some subtle meaning through not being a linguist.
ReplyDeleteGeld as gold has returned to prominence in the world because it can be trusted to always be what it is while money simply morphs through the ether. Yet neither has any value when compared to natural treasures.
Sean - I was very proud of having finally succeeded in posting a link in a comment. But my son told me that it wasn't a suitable link. I trust his judgement. I deleted it. I'll try again on another post. I'm grateful that you and Martin are both teaching me new skills.:)
ReplyDeleteAs money has become more abstract, and we have become more connected, it has become ever easier to continue the injustices of old, and to invent some new ones just for the hell of it.
ReplyDeleteAn article of possible interest: David Graeber on the first 5000 years of debt, and "the absolutely central role of war and slavery in creating and shaping the basic institutions of what we now call ‘the economy'".
Jams,
ReplyDeleteyep. I wonder how many people were fancy of starting a career as a banker, had they first have to agree to being gelded.
Claudia,
now, it's certainly not only me who is looking forward to your banker-lady's profound explanations.
Calum,
nothing to worry. :)
While certain ladies and not gentle men are gambling with what is not their's, I was just playing a bit with words.
Hans,
good one. Thank you.
Actually I would not surprised played Oranje a good role in South Africa.
You do certainly know, however, what is sometimes been said about teams playing an attractive and beautiful football, but at the end gain nothing: 'Sie starben in Schönheit' (They died in beauty).
Andrew,
quite!
You might find interesting to follow the link Stan's offering below.
Susan,
thank you, and right: those who think and behave as if they were the owners of natural recources might once have to realise that they can neither drink their oil nor eat their gold.
Claudia,
sometimes it is not good to trust one's son's judgement. :)
Laudator's post to which you - perfectly linked; well done! - fits perfectly to my profound obscurity.
Again: It was a wonderful comment that gave me a huge smile, and it's a pity you deleted it.
But who am I that you could/should trust my judgement?
Stan,
excellently put. Thank you - also for the link to Graeber's essay. Very interesting a read.
Aaaah! Sean. Thank you for putting my link back. I love you with all my heart.:)
ReplyDeleteI also love my son. But contrary to his very French, a bit naughty, spontaneous mother, he is a sober, correct, polite British gentleman. He pointed out that the link might be offending to an obscure writer. Ha! Ha! Ha! That's you, Sean! Can't wait to read your first book. Hurry up! I'm not getting any younger, y'know...
From Johanna: True. A wallach can only produce scheisse but it's a good dungemittel. In the present economy, keep buying the gelding, if you have some geld. Something will sprout out, one day.
ReplyDeleteBTW, Canadian Banks (specially mine) are solid on their feet. Canada is one of the very few countries whose banks never required Government Money to function productively. So far....
Hope I transmetted the message properly. We had fun....:)