Re: [ejlist] DIE SCHERE #32--text, translation, comments

[Olaf Schroeter <olaf.schroeter@gmx.de>]

John King schrieb:

> > Gary, "Heuermann" I can't find listed in any of my dictionaries (but
> > then I do not have a Grimms Wörterbuch - yet) but being born and
> > raised in Northern Germany and used to Low German dialect I know the
> > word quite well: it means about the same as Tagelöhner, a hired man on
> > a farm. In today's standard German the word "heuern" is current as
> > denoting the hiring of sailors, though DER SPIEGEL would not hesitate
> > to write something like "Die Firma heuerte einen renommierten
> > Rechtsberater an" or translates "hire and fire" quite aptly as "heuern
> > und feuern".
>
> In HH I think I once heard it used to refer to a DM 5 coin, or was that a
> Haiermann?
>

Nice try, John, but a 5 Mark-coin is a Heiermann indeed. (At least it is in Berlin, too). And I don't think that a coin could father a child.  ;-)

In my Wahrig I find "Heuerling" and the plural "Heuerleute" =  "Landpächter, der seine Pacht in Arbeit leistet" = "leaseholder/tenant who pays for his lease
through work".

Greetings from Berlin,

Olaf