Gesundheit
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Gesundheit (German pronunciation ) (IPA pronunciation: [ɡəˈzʊnthaɪt]) is the German and Yiddish word for health. When a person sneezes, German and Yiddish speakers typically say Gesundheit! to wish them good health, serving much the same purpose as "bless you" in English. The expression arrived with early German immigrants, such as the Pennsylvania Dutch, and doubtless passed into local English usage in areas with substantial German-speaking populations.[1] The expression is first widely attested in American English as of 1910, about the time when large numbers of Yiddish-speaking Ashkenazi Jews immigrated to the United States.
Often the word, when used in an English context, is mispronounced as [ɡəˈzʊntaɪd] or [ɡəˈzʊntaɪt], and misspelled as "gazoontite" or "gazoontide".
[edit] Use
Gesundheit is also used in Australia. It was imported to South Australia through the Evangelical Lutheran refugees who fled the established Lutheran church in the east of Germany. These Silesian immigrants spoke their own language until the two World Wars caused a dramatic decline in the use of German in Australia. Gesundheit was used until recent times by the majority English speaking population. Its usage seems now to have declined.
The expression is also found in Jewish custom. Although not technically part of Jewish Law (Halacha), the custom of saying gezuntheit, tzu gezunt, labreeyut, or God bless you is considered a mannerly custom. It is written in the Talmud that the patriarch Jacob was the first person to become ill before passing on. Before that, people would sneeze and die. When God infused the soul into Man, He "blew it" into Adam's nostrils. Thus, when it came time for the soul to be returned to its Maker, it would leave through the same portal it arrived.
[edit] Origin
There are different theories regarding the origin of this phrase. One idea is that the expression stems from the Middle Ages when the Bubonic Plague was threatening European health. In this case the person saying gesundheit was actually wishing good health upon themselves, since they may have been infected by the one who sneezed. During this time it was also commonly believed that sneezing made one's body vulnerable to evil spirits. Thus another plausible explanation is that gesundheit was a blessing to ward off demons while the sneezer's body was defenseless.
Superstitions date back as early as Ancient Greece (ref. Herodotus, History 440 BC). The soul was thought to leave the body through the nose upon death, so a powerful sneeze was thus considered an ominous event.
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Random House Word of the Day (9/23/1997).
