Official black man
Red tape is a critical term for excessive bureaucracy . The word has been used extensively since the 19th century.
Possible derivations
Where the word comes from is debatable. The following three derivations of the term are mentioned:
- Derivation from Simile , a model decision common in the Austrian monarchy (from Latin similis "similar"). With the help of this standard form, similar issues could be dealt with more quickly and schematically; Officials who only acted according to the pattern were referred to as "Simile riders". The use of the term simile for the “mold-like” quotation of specifications has been documented since the High Romanesque and is reflected, for example, in almost uniform architectural design specifications for churches and monasteries as well as in manuscripts.
- From the Swiss usage: " Riding around on the official white horse" - in the 19th century, official files in Switzerland were delivered by mounted messengers.
- Name for the mold on old files or for the dust on old files that looks like mold. Evidently there has never been any evidence of this naming motif.
use
According to Melchior Kirchhofer (1824), the phrase “riding around on the official white horse” was proverbial and he explains it by the fact that service horses were formerly often used for private rides in Switzerland. With reference to Kirchhofer, but now in the form of "Everyone wants to ride the official gray", the phrase appears in Josua Eiselein (1838). Without further explanation it is given by Karl Simrock (1846).
In the twentieth century the term “official gray” was used in the idioms “riding the official gray” (meaning “behaving bureaucratically”) and “the official gray neighing (trots, needs food again)” (meaning “bureaucracy rules “) Used.
literature
- Rolf Hiersche : On the etymology and word history of German official mold and act (in art) . In: Mohammad Ali Jazayery, Werner Winter (Ed.): Languages and Cultures: Studies in Honor of Edgar C. Polomé. Walter de Gruyter 1988, ISBN 3-11-010204-8 , pp. 269-278 ( on Google Books ).
Web links
- Berliner Zeitung : Official white man neighs . April 19, 1995.
Individual evidence
- ↑ True: German dictionary . Gütersloh 1993.
- ↑ Julius von Schlosser : The art of the Middle Ages . Academic Publishing Company Athenaion, Berlin-Neubabelsberg 1923, p. 74.
- ↑ Hiersche 1988, p. 271.
- ↑ Melchior Kirchhofer : Truth and Poetry: Collection of Swiss Proverbs . Zurich 1824, p. 102f. ( online ).
- ↑ Josua Eiselein: The proverbs and speeches of the German people in old and new times . Donaueschingen 1838, p. 27 ( online ).
- ^ Karl Simrock : The German People's Books . Vol. 5, Frankfurt am Main 1846, p. 14 ( online ).
- ↑ Lutz Röhrich : Lexicon of the proverbial sayings . Vol. 1, Freiburg im Breisgau 1973, p. 56.