June 13, 2008, 13:30
shufitz"Lebensmittel"
New word for me. (The Germans do have some interesting terms, don't they?) I'll quote at a bit of length, from the chairman of Nestlé, speaking in today's Wall Street Journal.
[Title] Biofuels Are Indefensible in Our Hungry World
The world's agriculture and water crisis is only going to get worse. As China and India grow, … competition for arable land is intensifying. Food prices are rising, … agriculture suppliers can barely keep up with today's demand. So what is the world doing? Reorienting land away from food production and toward plants cultivated for energy needs.
This could be the single most destructive set of policy mistakes made in a generation. From time immemorial, mankind has struggled to produce enough food. Wars have been fought over arable land. Whole populations have been forced to migrate, and untold millions of human beings have died because circumstances, climate, war or political ineptitude have deprived them of what the German language describes as "Lebensmittel," or a "means for survival." … So why introduce a new competitor for this scarce resource?
June 13, 2008, 14:08
goofyI thought Lebensmittel usually just meant "food". Lebensmittelgeschäft is a grocery store.
June 13, 2008, 14:44
BobHaleI agree. The only meaning I've ever heard is "groceries".
June 13, 2008, 15:01
zmježdIf you wish to translate the two words literally into English
Leben 'life, living' and Mittel 'medium; mean'. (The two words are cognate with English
live and
middle.) Some synonyms in English
foodstuff,
victual (regional term
vittles), and
viand, the latter two being similar in literal meaning Latin
victus 'means of livelihood'
vivendum 'living' (gerund of
vivere). (The first citaiton in Grimm's dictionary is the middle of the 13th century, a bit before grocery stores or greengrocer's apostrophes.)
I'm reminded of that nasty little guy from Austria who used " lebensraum " as a reson for doing all sorts of nasty things. If i'm not mistaken are they not similar terms?
June 16, 2008, 06:09
zmježd lebensraumYes, the terms are related in that they share the first word,
leben 'living', so
Lebensraum is literally 'living room'. It can be translated as 'habitat' or 'space for living' or left in its German form (in history books).