I've been looking in to my ancestory and finally found where the name was anglicized.
Does anyone know what the meaning of Löser as a surname in german means? The last person I can find was born in Bavaria in 1838 if that matters much.
I get a chuckle of the spelling. I can sort of understand why it was changed in an english speaking country.
Q for those who know german.
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Re: Q for those who know german.
My best studied-German-in-school guess would be something like 'repairman'.
Someone fluent and with knowledge of German culture could probably put that it some kind perspective and maybe give some idiomatic background or something.
Someone fluent and with knowledge of German culture could probably put that it some kind perspective and maybe give some idiomatic background or something.
Maybe we're just jaded, but your villainy is not particularly impressive. -Ennesby
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Sanity is the process by which you continually adjust your beliefs so they are predictively sound. -esr
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Sanity is the process by which you continually adjust your beliefs so they are predictively sound. -esr
- skb12172
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Re: Q for those who know german.
Snort...reminds me of a former teacher with the last name of Raper. He changed it to Rapier.
There must be an end to this intimidation by those who come to this great country, but reject its culture.
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Re: Q for those who know german.
Yeah, The gave stones of John Löser certainly made me laugh.
One of the myriad of "name" sites claims it was a german tenant farmer who paid off his obligation to his feudal lord. Coming from "to redeem", but I am skeptical.
I seems that the area where the Löser fellow settled had some people descendant from some Le Suer, or something....
not being a linguist I can't say that is has nothing to do with french for a cobbler, but, what do I know.
maybe after learning that their surname was loser in english my ancestors took on an anglicized version of the french for shoemaker... I dunno.
EDIT: So my surname is Leasure (nothing to hide, I am a nobody and the Feds have my DNA so whatever.... ) The gravestones for the original immigrants in the Roman Catholic cemetary show the orginal Löser, but all descendants show Leasure. So obviously is was changed.
- Darrell
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Re: Q for those who know german.
Google translate/Wikipedia says it means "solver".
http://translate.google.com/translate?h ... rev=search
http://translate.google.com/translate?h ... rev=search
Eppur si muove--Galileo
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Re: Q for those who know german.
Yeah,
Family lore is something along the line of a banker. It seems that "loser" is short for portugaloser, which was a very large value coin minted. I have a hard time believing that the family name is based off of a coin. I suppose is possible but doubt it.
Family lore is something along the line of a banker. It seems that "loser" is short for portugaloser, which was a very large value coin minted. I have a hard time believing that the family name is based off of a coin. I suppose is possible but doubt it.
- Erik
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Re: Q for those who know german.
My first guess for "Löser" would be "fixer", as in repairman (or "solver"). I've never heard the word in German before, so that's based on my knowledge of German, and knowing it's similarities to Scandinavian languages.
But googling a bit I found this: http://www.onomastik.com/l%C3%B6ser.php
The alternatives that makes most sense is that Löser is a tradename for a person that works in a bath house. Or that it's a person from the town of Lösau.
Checking the german wikipedia gives more options: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%B6ser
"Löser" is similar to "Goel" in jewish law. It seems to be a person that settles debts.
Löser is also a big coin or medallion.
Oh, and for those of you that doesn't speak German, the character "ö" is a separate character, it's not just "an 'o' with two dots over". The name would be pronounced more like "loeser" in english, the "ö" is pronounced something like "u" in "fur". But since few english speakers would know that, it's understandable that it was anglicized.
But googling a bit I found this: http://www.onomastik.com/l%C3%B6ser.php
The alternatives that makes most sense is that Löser is a tradename for a person that works in a bath house. Or that it's a person from the town of Lösau.
Checking the german wikipedia gives more options: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%B6ser
"Löser" is similar to "Goel" in jewish law. It seems to be a person that settles debts.
Löser is also a big coin or medallion.
Oh, and for those of you that doesn't speak German, the character "ö" is a separate character, it's not just "an 'o' with two dots over". The name would be pronounced more like "loeser" in english, the "ö" is pronounced something like "u" in "fur". But since few english speakers would know that, it's understandable that it was anglicized.
"Life is tough, but it's tougher if you're stupid."
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- Darrell
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Re: Q for those who know german.
I knew that, and thought of mentioning it. It would not sound like "loser", more like "lurser", wouldn't it?Erik wrote: Oh, and for those of you that doesn't speak German, the character "ö" is a separate character, it's not just "an 'o' with two dots over". The name would be pronounced more like "loeser" in english, the "ö" is pronounced something like "u" in "fur". But since few english speakers would know that, it's understandable that it was anglicized.
Eppur si muove--Galileo
- Erik
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Re: Q for those who know german.
Yes, but with the middle "r" silent.
Or like the "o" sound in colonel, depends on who says it.
Or like the "o" sound in colonel, depends on who says it.
"Life is tough, but it's tougher if you're stupid."
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- Vonz90
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Re: Q for those who know german.
You have to be careful with the translation because in Bavaria in 1838 they most likely would have been speaking one the Bavarian dialects and not standard Hochdeutsch.