1) Der Anfang ist erwünscht, der Fortgang der glücklichen Waffen des Königes wird vielleicht des baldigen Ende des Krieges seyn
This isn't a grammatical word ending question, for once, but an idiom question: does "Waffen" make good idiomatic sense here? Like, standing in for "waging war", "arms", "campaign"? I know it *can* mean "the totality of weapons" in the plural, but so can English "arms", and yet I still wouldn't say "the continuation of the king's fortunate arms" in English. It's just awkward. So my question is: in German, is the sentence as I've written it awkward, or is "Waffen" a perfectly cromulent word there? Because the whole word is a little hard to read and could be a completely different word (but if so, I don't know which).
This is one of my "I can't read the word clearly, I made an educated guess in which I have low confidence" questions.
Which would make grammatical and idiomatic sense, as I am not familiar with the expression „glückliche Waffen“, whereas „Waffengang“ might be old school but did exist. But maybe he noticed he‘s repeating „gang“ twice and changed his mind mid sentence about the word he wanted to use, and/or partly thought in French - aux armes!
Yeah, "Waffengangs" would make sense to me! Unfortunately, there's no room for "gang"; he's at the very end of the page and needs to start a new line. I may run this one by my professor when I go to send him the handful of words I'm truly stumped on.
Of course, being at the end of the line, Gentze may have forgotten in the course of the transition to the next line that he hadn't finished the word he was writing, and the unfinished word wouldn't have been on the part of the page he was staring at to remind him.
Thank you for confirming my German Sprachgefühl telling me that "Waffen" didn't work there. I'm always chuffed when I'm right about something, given how many times I'm wrong!
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Gentze to Fredersdorf, Letter 3, Teuton-picking
Date: 2025-01-25 05:02 pm (UTC)This isn't a grammatical word ending question, for once, but an idiom question: does "Waffen" make good idiomatic sense here? Like, standing in for "waging war", "arms", "campaign"? I know it *can* mean "the totality of weapons" in the plural, but so can English "arms", and yet I still wouldn't say "the continuation of the king's fortunate arms" in English. It's just awkward. So my question is: in German, is the sentence as I've written it awkward, or is "Waffen" a perfectly cromulent word there? Because the whole word is a little hard to read and could be a completely different word (but if so, I don't know which).
This is one of my "I can't read the word clearly, I made an educated guess in which I have low confidence" questions.
Re: Gentze to Fredersdorf, Letter 3, Teuton-picking
Date: 2025-01-26 01:39 pm (UTC)„Fortgang des glücklichen Waffengangs des Königs“
Which would make grammatical and idiomatic sense, as I am not familiar with the expression „glückliche Waffen“, whereas „Waffengang“ might be old school but did exist. But maybe he noticed he‘s repeating „gang“ twice and changed his mind mid sentence about the word he wanted to use, and/or partly thought in French - aux armes!
Re: Gentze to Fredersdorf, Letter 3, Teuton-picking
Date: 2025-01-26 01:45 pm (UTC)Of course, being at the end of the line, Gentze may have forgotten in the course of the transition to the next line that he hadn't finished the word he was writing, and the unfinished word wouldn't have been on the part of the page he was staring at to remind him.
Thank you for confirming my German Sprachgefühl telling me that "Waffen" didn't work there. I'm always chuffed when I'm right about something, given how many times I'm wrong!