This etymology is true, but the story he tells about it is actually false. Two corrections: 1) The word "vasistas" wasn't coined during the franco-prussian war (1870-1871); in reality, it's more than a century older, as it was already in use in 1760 and entered the official French dictionary in 1798. 2) "Vasistas" indeed comes from German "Was ist das", but it wasn't a misinterpretation or a mistranslation at all. It rather seems that calling transom windows "what is that" (in German of course, because imitating Germans and making fun of their accent is always funny) was a deliberate joke made by French speakers in the 18th century - as this opening above the door allowed you to talk to someone outside. Stranger: "Knock knock" Homeowner: [looks through the transom window] [shouts] "What is that?" Sources : • Wiktionary • CNRTL-The Computerised Thesaurus of the French Language
@@Liro_P Yeah but i probably know what it mean by that, i'm french. (but i could be wrong too, it's speculation ^^ ) He respond to a message who is not adress to him and ask that this message was spoken in something he can understand. As if people can't spoke anything else on the internet. Rude is probably too strong but it's a form of passive-agressive often use in french. A lot of french don't like when people spoke anything but french and english.
Similar thing in Polish: Polish has a term that translates to "thingy" or "thingmajig" (basically a thing that you don't know what it is used for or similar) - Wichajster. AFAIK, it comes from the German "Wie heißt er?" or "What is it called?".
@@oliveranderson7264 im French as well, I heard the word several times but it mostly strikes me in the context of a song I can't remember; do you know the name of the song you're talking about? I think it might be the same
@@naia3599 Je suis francophone mais pas français :) I did some research and I found "Le portrait" by Calogero which I've definitely listened to a couple of times but I had another song in mind, I wish I remembered it haha it was sung by a woman in the early 2010s if I'm not mistaken
In mexico, we have the slang "chamba" meaning work or job, which apparently comes from immigrants applying for a work licence at the U.S. "chamber of commerce" chamber ≈ chamba
I once knew a lady from Peru who used to work at my company's branch office in Lima. Among themselves, their private nickname for German speakers was "pacho". Most of their business partners were from Bavaria and Austria, where a common phrase is "passt scho", which means "that's alright". Not the worst origin of a nickname, if you ask me, especially since the Austrian and Bavarian stereotype is that they tend to be more laid-back. I don't know if it gained any usage outside the company, but it made me smile!
"If you're german, looking at this word and going "what is that?" I don't blame you." That is some top tier comedy. A beauty of multilingual jokery. A lesson in masterful cheekiness.
Same story is told about kangaroo translating to "I don't understand." It's not true though, just a common myth. What's true is that the word kangaroo actually is derived from an aboriginal language, however its actual meaning is - shockingly - kangaroo. It's just the aboriginal name for large kangaroos.
Unfortunately not true in the case of Maya, which comes from the Yucatan Mayan endonym maya'. It's also a popular etymology for "Yucatan" but it's uncertain
Kinda reminds me of a snack in Indonesia called Odading, which is believe that the name come from Dutch people saying "O dat ding" or "Oh that thing" when the want to buy it.
I'm french, and you're all kind of wrong here... 1/ the word "vasistas" was already in the french dictionaries in 1798. As the franco-prussian war happened in 1870, sorry, but it has no link to it 2/ the "german soldier saying was ist das" origin story is only a french joke. It's associated with "vasistas ? PETITE FENETRE GRAND CARREAU" with a german stereotyped accent (vasistas, small window big glass). Some of the time, it's followed up by "J'ai entendu que ça faisait fureur en allemagne" / "It was all the rage in germany", as the word "fureur" is said the same pronounciation as furher in german. 3/ the real origin seems to be traced back to Alsace / Lorraine taverns (and other night things ;) ) which had small cuts in their doors, that later could have some glass but was first made of a wooden panel with a metal grill in the front. The "barkeeps" (the proprietors) would ask "Was ist das ?" (in the sense of "C'est pourquoi ?" / 'What do you want ?") to night visitors through that opening, and the word propagated to the rest of France. The word that could refer to those before was "guichet", which also completely changed its meaning through time as it's now used to refer to ticket offices. The "guichets" or "vasistas" of old were replaced with judas in our doors, or more recently with interphones and maybe even cameras. The use we have today for a vasistas, which is a small window in a roof (with a single big glass) only dates back from the 1960s, and is interchangeable with Velux, the brand that first made them. So... it's not the windows you americans get above your front doors either which is indeed a transom. We don't really have those on our houses, especially on old ones.
Thank you. I was looking for this comment. I can handle mistakes, but if someone takes the mantle of an etymology expert, they should verify their sources before spreading bad information. It makes me wonder if the rest of his content is as poorly researched.
As a German this doesn't make sense either. It's entirely incorrect to ask "Was ist das?" in that situation. I'd personally look around and see if there's something weird behind me A correct German phrase you could use is "Was willst du?" but that can be interpreted as an aggressive "tf u want" so it's wiser to use more formal speech "Was möchten Sie haben?" "What want you (formal) have" (literally translated)
@@FlorianWendelbornin Alsatian, so Alamannic, dialect, mixed with French bits, it might. Especially when I imagine this question asked with French syntax but in German words: qu'est-ce que tu veux ? => was ist das, was du willst... I speculate though...
My French linguistics professor said the etymology was basically from Germans looking out those windows when there was a racket in the streets and yelling "Was ist das?". And she also said it's another word for Velux. Not sure how correct she was about the etymology, though.
That’s funny bc I’m a French native speaker as well as German I guess, sometimes my thought jump within those languages without a clear reason. So when you said that this is a French word I thought to myself never seen that „was ist das?“
The wildest part is this is at least the second time this happened with German. In Polish we have a word that means something like "lever", "tool thing" or "thingy", that being "wihajster", which comes from German "Wie heisst er" or "what's he called"
It’s still in use though, for a completely different object. (The first meaning was a pivoting window in or on top of a door… this meaning is lesser known today as they went out of fashion.) Now, people mostly use it to describe roof windows. The brand Velux may be the more popular word to refer to those windows but people do know about vasistas.
As a French, I can testify that a lot of people know this word. I don't know what made you think it was niche, in fact it is used as a synonym of Velux. Cool video 😄
Funny story about this word: I'm german and have french in school. Whenever we have new vocuabulary, we go through all of the words and come up with easy ways to remember it. For "vasistas," a student came up with "vasitas (was ist das)? Das klappfenster." This word and its translation are forever engrained in my brain, and it isn't used often. So, thanks for reminding me of its existence.
Reminds me of the (supposed) story of how the Yucatan peninsula got its name: When the spanish landed on the peninsula and met the local natives, they asked what the place was called. “Yucatan” was the answer given as heard by the spaniards. Allegedly this is a bastardization of Mayan for “I don’t understand you”
There's a theory about a hilly area in Pakistan, it's called Patriata, the theory goes that a British official came to that place and approached an old lady who was carrying a basket of milled flour on her head and asked "what's this place called?" She thought he was asking "what's that thing?" so she responded "Putr eh aata ey" (Son this is flour.) So the name patriata stuck around
Sounds like a "kangaroo means I don't understand" story that I'd be very sceptical about. Especially when it's so similar to patria, an existing word (latin for fatherland). Idk why it's actually calked that though.
Omg I call them was-ist-das (I am Romanian) and I was starting to think I am crazy because I never heard anyone call them this, but I knew I heard it somewhere! I even lived in France for many years and never heard it!
A Russian friend told me about this recently and how there are apparently many German loan words in Russia Also this reminds me how the name Hamish is a solely British thing (not Irish) because they came to Ireland and heard people react to being called that, but it is just the way the name Seamus is changed when you call out to someone with that name 😂
@@glitch84- it’s an aspect of Irish grammar, an initial mutation where the beginning of the word is changed. In this case a lenition where h is added after the s to soften the sound. And when it comes to names in Irish, the vocative case is used (not used in English anymore really, but an example is “O Romeo, Romeo…”). So when speaking directly to someone named Séamas, (pronounced like Shay-muss), you would say “a Shéamais”, which sounds pretty much like “uh Haymish”. (For some reason with men’s names the end can also be changed by adding an i to “slenderise” it 🤷♀️)
My guess is that most normal people likely didn't know the word. I didn't know the English word for it, nor do I know the German word, I only knew about the French one because of this story. So I would've just called it "window." Secondly, remember synonyms exist. Just because you already have a word for it doesn't mean a new word can't come along and become an alternative or even replace the old.
Thank you i love your channel! In italy vàsistas is referred to our windows, that can lean back 45 degrees. You brightened my hospital day better than the nurses
One of my favorites of these is from Swiss German (only in certain Swiss cantons). Since French and German coexist in CH a lot of French gets mixed into Swiss German dialect and in the part of the country a wrist watch is called a Quelleheurerädli (meaning little Quelle Heure Wheel).
As a Swiss whose mother tongue is French but who knows a lot of German, I knew about the word "vasistas" and when you said it comes from German, I instantly knew what it was going to be, thx for the cool story 😊
I'm Frech and German L2 speaker and I've ever heard in a TV show. When you said "from German", my mind made immediatly the connection 🧐 "No, It's to be more deep" 😅 Then explanations and... 😂
Vasisdas is a common word in Turkey referring to the same thing. There are a lot of French words in Turkish (mosly fancy words like "grande toilette" -> "grand tuvalet" or "bijouterie" -> "Bijuteri")
Vasistas is a mode of propping the window door in a way that the latch function are at the bottom and it opens only from the top, and it can interchange with a normal window by switching the handle position. It’s commonly found in schools
I just find the idea of invading soldiers going around some town and just randomly pointing at and naming things, like those Frenchmen thought was happening, hilarious 😂
In Italy I regularly use (and most of the people I know) the term "A vasistas" (pronuncerà with a silent s at the end) to refer to that type of window, or when a window has that feature
Also kinda happend the other way around in the case of "Visematenten", a niche German word for shenanigans or getting in trouble, contacted with teenage girls, coming from the french "visiter ma tente" ("visit my tent")...
when you said vasistas i had a flashback of my economy/law professor in the first two years of high school (i'm from Italy btw). she used to say every time she entered our class, "it stinks in here! open the vasistas!". we used to have only above-door windows weirdly, no normal ones
This made me think about how Window comes from the Norse word vindauga, literally meaning wind eye and was holes in the top of houses to get smoke out.
We also have the exact same word in Italian, Vasistas, with the same origin, but it refers to when you have a window that can also hinge on its bottom side and partially open by vertically leaning towards the inside of room. (if you saw it from the side, it would look like |/ when opened in a Vasistas, instead of looking like |] when you open it normally) They had them in Northern Italy and, in theory, some Germans did the exact same thing, and it became the name of that window opening. I find it interesting that this same origin is applied to both of these windows, and that both are window types.
In South Africa there are trees called Kiepersol. The story goes that during the Anglo-Boer war in 1900, a boer saw British soldiers running from a lion towards a lone tree in a field, shouting "kiepersol". The boer assumed they were naming the tree. They were shouting that they hoped the tree would "keep us all".
