I switch between gesundheit and "bless you" just to keep things fresh. But once you get to five or six in a row... you have to add an "do you have hay fever by chance?" in there.
I say it because very religious family would shame me for saying "bless you" when they sneezed after learning that I didnt believe in any religion. lol
Everyone has a friend who has THE SNEEZE. I am that friend. My parents both have THE SNEEZE and so does my sister. You gotta control that or that will be casualties.
I have it. When I get to sneeze 3 I tell myself to shut up out loud. Usually disrupts sneeze 4. But if sneeze 4 comes it comes with others that I have no hope of controlling.
Actually ☝️🤓 it means "health", it's also commonly used in Germany. Looking into it, TIL that it supposedly started in the Middle Ages as a form of blessing against the plague
For anyone curious, Guten Gesundheit roughly translates to 'good health' from what I remember.
Guten means 'good' and is implied to be dropped with this expression, so saying Gesundheit is telling the person 'health', essentially wishing them well.
From a quick search this actually isn't the expression used in Germany, it's a New World quirk of borrowed words and expressions, likely tied to various German immigrants and cross cultural evolution of language.
Thanks for the confirmation! I took two years of German twenty five years ago (yeesh lol) and barely remember much.
But growing up Gesundheit was the common expression for sneezing; my parents used it, much more so father. I think it's partly regional (US Midwest) but my dad's side of the family is descended from German immigrants who came over in, I think, the mid or early 1800s.
There were a lot of German settlers across the US at various points so I chalk it up up the melting pot that is US culture vernacular.
My ex would have crazy sneezing fits where she’d sneeze like 10+ times and quickly. I called them “sneezures” because they’d disrupt anything she would be doing…
As someone who genrally sneezes upwards of 5 times on the bounce, it’s always funny to hear peoples ‘bless you’ change from polite, to confused, and sometimes to annoyed.
This happened to me in college! A woman in the dining hall sneezed and I said "Gesundheit" She lit up and asked if I spoke it. I had to break the news I didn't. She seemed rather disappointed
In Germany, According to "Knigge" (The etiquette standards), the sneezer has to say "Entschuldigung" and no answer is required. But hardly anyone I know does that.
I learned quite a bit from Knigge 25 years ago. And since then, I've noticed that practically no one knows or uses it anymore. But hey, you can be polite and courteous without a book telling you how.
The "Knigge" as we know it today was published by his publisher after Knigges death and had nothing to do with the actual work of Knigge himself.
Also part of the rules of fine society is to lift your chair, move back with it and pit it down instead of just pushing it back when standing up. When I was in a Knigge lesson/class in school it was öracticed multiple times and immidiately after was a break and nobody lift the chair up.
And for anyone interested his name was Adolph Franz Friedrich Ludwig Freiherr Knigge.
I'm the same way, Eve... Whenever I sneeze, I sneeze like 7-8 times 😭😭 please wait 3s after a sneeze to see if more come before saying anything, PLEASE 🫠
130
u/NydusRush 5h ago
Sneeze 1: Bless you!
Sneeze 2: Gesundheit!
Sneeze 3: Salud!
Sneeze 4: yea you're on your own now buddy