Katzelmacher
Katzelmacher (also: Katzlmacher ) is now a seldom used derogatory term for guest workers (especially of Italian origin).
Word origin
The word Katzelmacher is derived from the Latin catinus , Old High German chez (z) il ( Middle High German kezzel , from this today: Kessel ) and originally means “ Kesselmacher ”. In addition, there is also late Latin cattia , from which the word Gatzel developed, a wooden ladle . So the expression ciaz, ciaza probably came from those traveling Ladin wood carvers from Val Gardena(now famous Madonna carvers) transferred who offered such wooden kitchen utensils for sale.
It is Z. In the Pinzgau region , for example , it is said that until the first decades of the 19th century, every year in early summer, “Gatzlmakers” from Italy came over the Felbertauern to sell the “Gatzl” wooden spoons and ladles and other small things made of wood Had been produced in their native mountain villages over the winter.
The next step may have been the transfer of the Ladin-speaking Italian-speaking, the word is found piemontes.-Venetian as cazza for Piedmont pewter, which came by pedlars across the Alps, and can well with the wandering tinkers to be associated .
The word has been widespread in Vienna since 1741, its negative connotation as ethnophaulism for Italians it probably only gained in the First World War (compare Welsche ). Later it was generally transferred to "southerners". In particular, guest workers from the European Mediterraneum (Italians, Greeks, Spaniards) were given this word in Austria and Germany.
Folk etymology
Other folk etymological derivations are:
- A connection with the cat's head plaster is suspected, which was mainly laid by Italian plasterers.
- Since Katzel also means small kittens (in this sense the tomcat is the katzel maker) and Cazzo stands for penis in vulgar Italian , the word soon became a disparaging commonplace for strangers who move around "like a stray street cat " , seduce local women, father them children and then disappear.
- In addition, there is sound similarity with cascia "corn porridge" and cacio "cheese", in relation to any typical dishes.
- In Rotwelschen , katzeln means "to lie, to flatter lies". In this sense, it would be derived from the cat to see its flattery as wrong. As a lie maker, the Katzelmacher would be a dishonest person (swindler, villain).
- From the Italian gazzara "noise" comes a meaning "loud people".
- Even heretics has been associated with the word in conjunction.
- Italian soldiers are said to have slaughtered and ate cats during the First World War, hence the word "katzelmacher" used literally for Italians.
- Still understandable in times of war or emergency, cats were later served in taverns and restaurants to guests who ordered a roast rabbit out of profit-seeking. The guests mostly didn't notice anything because after removing the head and paws, the body of a rabbit can only be distinguished from that of a cat by connoisseurs. “Katzelmacher” are therefore also those who fraudulently sell a stewed cat to a guest instead of a roast rabbit.
- After the wedding of the Bavarian Elector Ferdinand Maria with Henriette Adelheid of Savoy , a noticeable number of Italian and Italian-Swiss artists were employed in the royal seat, who then adorned their works with the client's coat of arms (here the “Katzel” stands again as a “little cat “, This time for the Palatinate-Bavarian lion).
Reception in the arts
Rainer Werner Fassbinder's drama Katzelmacher (1968) and his film Katzelmacher (1969) refer to the term.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Entry in the Etymology Duden
- ^ Charles Berlitz: The wonderful world of languages. Zsolnay, Vienna / Hamburg 1982, ISBN 3-552-03418-8 .