Hot answers tagged dialects
8
It's from Latin,
servus
meaning slave, servant.
So when someone greets you,
Servus!
it meant originally "[I am your] servant" but it is nowadays only a friendly greeting, like "Hi!" in English.
Think of old-fashioned sign-offs in English letter-writing:
Your obdt. & humble servant
You will hear "Servus!" much more often in southern ...
3
Hochdeutsch is the description for the contemporary standard version of German, they way the language is usually written and spoken. Therefore, it is also the easiest variation to learn, because if you look for exercise books, they will cover most probably Hochdeutsch instead of a dialect.
1
Es gibt nur wenig Hintergrundwissen zur Redensart "schaffen wie ein Brunnenputzer".
Es scheint aber tatsächlich so zu sein, dass das Säubern ("putzen") der Brunnen eine anstrengende wie hoch angesehene Tätigkeit war:
In den Städten und Dörfern wurden zunächst Grundwasserbrunnen in Form von Schachtbrunnen angelegt, aus denen die Bewohner das Wasser mit ...
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