Old swede (idiom)
Alter Schwede is a colloquial expression , a so-called "Schnack" from Low German .
- Without referring to a specific person, "Old Swede" is used as an expression of astonishment. A similar expression would be, for example, "Donnerlittchen".
- In relation to a specific person, “Old Swede” expresses a not very serious outrage, comparable to “ my dear swan ” or “little friend” or “ my dear Scholli ”.
- The phrase “old Swede” is also used among friends in the sense of “buddy” or “comrade”: “Well, you old Swede!”.
Word origin
After the end of the Thirty Years' War , Elector Friedrich Wilhelm von Brandenburg had tried and tested Swedish soldiers recruited as trainers for his army. Because they got along particularly well with the drill , they were mostly used as NCOs . In the language of the soldiers these corporals were then called simply "the old Swedes".
literature
- Rudolf Köster: Proper names in the German vocabulary. A lexicon . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-11-017702-1 , p. 161 ( excerpt (Google) )
- Olga Ejikhine: Taken at your word. The phrasebook through the world of idioms . Digitalis Books, Utrecht 2006, ISBN 90-77713-05-0 , pp. 275-276 ( excerpt (Google) )