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Peter T. Daniels wrote:
[...]
> Of course it's in the dictionaries, because the dictionaries expect
> people to be reading newspapers from the 40s and history books.
>
> My question was, "Did the term persist in English usage elsewhere for
> any appreciable time after the cessation of hostilities?"
I'd be surprised if there were any BrEtc children over (let's guess)
the age of puberty who didn't know what a "U-boat" was. Folklore apart,
the curriculum of many British schools, along with the mindset of
film-makers, shows an unhealthy interest in the Second World War; and
the term is still the usual one for German submarines of the period. A
search shows that the British newspaper _The Independent_ has used it
66 times in the past twelve months.
>
> My _original_ question, however, which no German-speaker has addressed,
> was whether "Boot" is the ordinary German word for 'boat'.
My Pons Collins G-E-G dictionary, the 1994 second edition, was prepared
by Eva Vennebusch, Robin Sawers, and Horst Kopleck. Eva and Horst may
be native speakers of Aranta for all I know; but it's not difficult to
suspect they may actually be German-speakers. They seem to share my
lifelong belief that _Boot_ is the general word for "boat". There is
some evidence in the dictionary that _Schiff_ and _Boot_ don't split in
exactly the same way as "ship" and "boat"; but it's more than close
enough for jazz.
--
Mike.
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