>Anyone know what "Boche" comes from? I've never figured that out.
>Also, what about "Krauts"? I use that sometimes, and even end my
>postal address as "Krautland", but still amn't sure where that comes from,
>and nobody here knows, I can tell you.
Kraut comes from Sauerkraut (chopped cabbage), being part of the German diet. Boche surprisingly is also related to cabbages. It comes from a cross between Allemand (Fr: German) and Caboche (Fr Dia: Cabbage, Blockhead). The resulting word Alboche was shortened to Boche. Perhaps they were sick and tired of huns (derived from something silly the Kaiser once said) spilling across the borders, pointing at the fanlight (or small window or ceiling fan) and asking "was ist das?" (what is that?). This must have happened quite a lot for the french now call such objects "vasistas".
Hmm.
To redress the balance, I offer the factoid that during the Hundred Years War, the Frogs (supposedly because their habit of eating frog's legs but I've also heard it based on the Fleur-de-lis being called a Toad's Lily) called the English "Godons" because of their habit of saying "Goddamn!" all the time. Such a view of the English as a base and uncouth race was probably confirmed by the similarity of their word "Foot" being close to the French Word "Foutre" (fuck) and an archaic spelling of gown "coun" being similar to the French "Con" (literally cunt but better translated as twat). Which is why Princess Katherine has to have a lie-down after her English Lessons in Shakespeare's Henry V...
ObGlorantha: Derogatory epithets can be extremely implausible in derivation.
--Peter Metcalfe
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