Apparently the election campaign of Angela Merkel is a bit boring Indeed, the hashtag for her campaign is #fedidwgugl, which means "for a Germany in which we live well and happily."

That is one problem we don't have here in the U.S. - it certainly isn't politicially boring around here.

Why do they use the English term, "hashtag?" Can't they think of a nice twenty-seven letter word of their own? And how did "hashtag" usurp the other meanings of the symbol that used to mean "number" and sometimes still does mean "pound?"

Doesn't "hashtag" in German mean "bad word day?"

"Hashtag" isn't a word for the # symbol, it's a word for a tag proceeded by the # symbol.

˙pǝddıןɟ ʇsnظ pןɹoʍ ǝɹıʇuǝ ǝɥʇ ¿pǝuǝddɐɥ ʇɐɥʍ

Wish I could read your link, Goofy.

I have wondered about that "hashtag" word, too, Geoff. Interesting increase in the use of the word (click the arrow).

Well, some of us call a # an octothorpe. Hash for the sharp-sign glyph comes from Unix, IIRC.

So - I am a bit behind the times. I just put Goofy's link into Google Translate and came up with:

Claus Junghanns has written Internet and campaign history, at least a bit. The CDU politician from Frankfurt on the Oder is the first to use Twitter on his own hashtag #fedidwgugl, he is the hashtag pioneer of the Union. For the fact that #fedidwgugl has something to do with the Christian Democrats was made clear by the local announcement: Konrad-Adenauer-Haus, the political switch and power center of the CDU in the capital.

quote:

Originally posted by Geoff:
Why do they use the English term, "hashtag?" Can't they think of a nice twenty-seven letter word of their own? And how did "hashtag" usurp the other meanings of the symbol that used to mean "number" and sometimes still does mean "pound?"

Doesn't "hashtag" in German mean "bad word day?"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_sign

It so happens that I have found myself going slightly deaf lately. Not seriously, but enough to miss the occasional word. Next time I go to the doctor for a checkup I'll mention it. I turned on text captions when watching TV.

I noticed that, when indicating the lyrics of a song, the captions use two symbols: the UK Pound (£) sign and the hash (#) sign. I've theorised that (at least) two companies or people wrote the captions; when they asked how to indicate the music they were told "Use a pound sign"

quote:

I have found myself going slightly deaf lately.

I'm not a doctor (though I have seen one on TV) but I had the same problem occasionally over many years. Invariably it was impacted ear wax. The odd thing is it was always my right ear and never the left.

I'm going deaf too, but there is no wax in the canals. I meticulously clean them with my Water Pick when I brush my teeth.

quote:

I meticulously clean them with my Water Pick when I brush my teeth.

I prefer a Dremel tool.

The only really efficient way is to thread a towel into one ear and out of the other and pull it back and forth vigourously.

Doesn't that damage one's corpus callosum?

quote:

Invariably it was impacted ear wax.

I bought some olive oil drops from the pharmacist but they didn't seem to make any difference.

I wonder how much typical old-age deafness has altered language over the years? Mondegreens originate from mis-hearing things, so it might be a heretofore unnoticed factor.

It really is amazing the different journeys these threads take.

RE: deafness: I didn't know my biological father well (he & my Mom divorced when I was 9 mos old & my adoptive Dad started dating my Mom when I was 2y.o.)-- but got to know him a bit later on & started worrying when I saw that in 70's he was wearing 2 hearing aids Also my Mom suffered from that other sort of hearing impairment, where background noise (even a low-speed fan) makes it hard to hear...

My kids all studied audio engrg. A good 15 yrs ago (when I was still in my early '50's), I remember my eldest correcting me & noting: 'you're missing the sound of the initial consonant, that's the first sign!'

Today when we go thro Greetings songs in Spanish PreK, I can't tell the diff between "Me llamo Zack" & "Me llamo Jack"! Thank god for teachers nearby when I'm trying to parse Kensie vs Kelsie, or Keenas vs Keanu or Grayson vs Gracie or Harrison vs Harry vs Hudson etc ad nauseum idiosyncratic names...

It mever ceases to amaze me how pitches & rhythm-- music-- are not susceptible to this frailty.

I read an article recently that said young kids are having hearing losses at an alarming level. I can't find that article, but I did find this online site about it. I've wondered about all those ear buds I see, particularly when I can hear their songs loudly, and they are wearing them!