Ha, we know you're a Brit! / myLot

Shingle Springs, California

July 27, 2014 9:27pm CST

I read in today's paper that Danial Radcliffe was at ComicCon in San Diego dressed up as Spider Man. He said he got by with his American accent, and he wore a "rucksack". Ha! Gotcha, no American would say rucksack, we call them backpacks. lol

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5 responses

Just an Ordinary Owl?

@owlwings (43910)

• Cambridge, England

28 Jul 14

The term 'rucksack' only became popular in England after the war. It may have been known as a loan word from German before that but, at least during the war, anything German was usually anathema (except for words like 'blitz', which somehow flourished and has since been used to describe any fast and radical procedure). We generally called such a thing a 'knapsack' or a 'haversack'. Growing up in the '50s, I would have used both terms Wikipedia says that the term 'backpack' is also relatively recent, having been coined in about 1910. Actually both 'knapsack' and 'haversack' are German loan words but came into use in English much earlier, so, by WWII, were already well established. Both describe a bag for carrying food supplies: 'knap' probably comes from Low German or Dutch and means a 'bite' [to eat]; 'haver' comes from the German word for 'oats', so a 'haversack' was originally a small bag for carrying oat cakes and other food. In fact, Daniel is probably also showing his age and education because, in Britain, the word 'rucksack' describes a rather larger article, usually with a frame, than a 'backpack', which is used for a small bag without a frame and usually only large enough for one's daily needs. I am not sure when 'backpack' became current in Britain but it was probably only just becoming common in England as Daniel was growing up. By then, I imagine, 'haversack' and 'knapsack' were already going out of fashion.

2 people like this

TheRealDawn

@dawnald (85146)

• Shingle Springs, California

29 Jul 14

I knew rucksack came from German, but not all that other history!

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Marja

@buenavida (9984)

• Sweden

29 Jul 14

Interesting discussion.

Language is alive, it changes all the time - sauerkraut is German - sauna is Finnish - smorgasbord is Swedish.. don't know if they are used much in the USA.. Well, who knows where these words came from in the beginning.