So in English you can "jinx" someone (Jinx you owe me a coke!). Is there a phrase in German that is the equivalent?
English reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jinx_(children's_game)
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Sign up to join this communitySo in English you can "jinx" someone (Jinx you owe me a coke!). Is there a phrase in German that is the equivalent?
English reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jinx_(children's_game)
The German version is "Chips Cola". It doesn't seem to be very far spread but you can find a few results via Google.
The simple answer is:
I also never ever have heard of any of the games mentioned in other answers and comments.
One usage of saying "Jinx!" is when two people coincidentally say or do the same thing in the same moment. In contemporary German there is not such a short phrase but we may say something along the line of
"Du hast mir das Wort aus dem Mund genommen."
"Zeitgleich!" or "Gleichzeitig!"
"Das war ja Telepathie!"
"Kannst Du Gedanken lesen?"
Some of these still have some superstitious element inherent (Telepathie = telepathy, Gedankenlesen = reading thoughts) but probably not to the extent the English counterpart has.
This was not always the case. There was regionally different superstition depicted in phrases used after two people said or did the same simultaneously. Those proverbs are mostly lost today:
Die haben eine arme Seele erlöst.
Die haben einen Schneider in den Himmel gelupft.
Eine Pfaffenköchin wurde aus dem Fegefeuer erlöst.
Quelle: Hoffmann-Krayer et al.: Handwörterbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens
The game isn't played in Germany much, if at all. There is a card game with a similar game mechanic, called "Krieg und Frieden" (Link to German language Wikipedia) or the derivative "Autoquartett" (Link to English language Wikipedia). In these games the equivalent word for jinx
is Stich
. So, children adopting these games into jinx-like games would probably say Stich
.
jinx
as used in the question has nothing to do with verhexen
either.