in reply to Re: A message for Anonymous Monk
in thread A message for Anonymous Monk

Doesn't Geisterfahrer literally mean "spirit driver"?

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Re^3: A message for Anonymous Monk
by moritz (Cardinal) on Nov 04, 2009 at 08:33 UTC
    "spirit" or "ghost", yes.

      Gawd, I love German. They put together nouns like the Chinese do pictograms.

      So "time spirit" is the essence of an era, but "spirit driver" means going against the grain. I'm trying to figure out what that tells of the German psyche.

Re^3: [OT] A message for Anonymous Monk
by almut (Canon) on Nov 04, 2009 at 18:56 UTC

    I believe that, etymologically, the word is more related to ghost/phantom/illusion (although there is some overlapping semantics with spirit, of course) — in the sense that, under normal circumstances (if everyone abided by the traffic rules) Geisterfahrer should not exist.  So, in the unexpected and (hopefully) rare event that you happen to encounter one, you might at first actually feel like you can't trust your eyes, i.e. seeing a ghost or phantom...

      Right. And since he's driving in the opposite direction he's rather fast, so you'll either only get a short glimpse of him, or you'll be a ghost yourself soon ;-)
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