Duty is Duty and Liquor is Liquor

"Duty is Duty and Liquor is Liquor" is a translation of an old German proverb: Dienst ist Dienst und Schnaps ist Schnaps (literally, Dienst means service ).

I find it pretty comical that in German and English, the meanings of liquor and schnapps are reversed.

In German, Likör (from French liqueur ) means schnapps, and Schnaps means liquor.

So, the translation for liquor store in German is Schnapsladen (liquor shop). On the other hand, laden with schnapps is something else entirely.

In German, we have some funny words like Schnapsidee (liquor-based idea, used when an idea seems to have originated from a moment of intoxication).

Another funny peculiarity is the word Meerrettich (sea radish), which might have been misheard as mare radish in England during trades a few centuries back, and which became horse radish. Another explanation for the origin of horse radish says that things were called horse this and horse that during those days when they were exceptionally strong. So, both explanations are equally likely, probably, and both may have occurred at the same time.

Well-known is also the kindergarten, from German Kindergarten (children's garden). However, in English, kind also means nice. The reverse would be Amazon's Kindle, which sounds like little child in German. Compare Christkindlmarkt (Christ Child Market), for instance.

There's a lot of similarity between German and English ... like the German dialect de compared to the, the words hammer (Hammer), nail (Nagel), house (Haus), etc.