Wurst

Sausages are important stuff here in Central Europe. Not only because they are undoubtedly on the top spots of people diet, but also because the German word for it, Wurst, has surprising meaning changes, which made it today's favourite word.

Expression #1 is Jetzt geht's um die Wurst!, meaning that it gets really serious now, that it is neck or nothing, now for it! The sausage is here the heart of the matter, what really counts.

Expression #2 is Es ist mir Wurst!, which translates as "I don't care", "It's all the same to me". We seem to have lost all of our interest in sausages now!



It's funny how close languages are, when you look at them from afar. Jetzt geht's um die Wurst! could loosely translate in Spanish as "Echar toda la carne en el asador" (lit. "to put all the meat to grill"). Meat is again something serious. And Es ist mir Wurst would be "Me importa un pimiento" (lit. "it means a pepper to me"). Apparently, in Spain we don't care about peppers, they don't care about sausages in Austria.

To-may-to, to-mah-to, ...