I thought I could keep separate languages apart in my head, but it took me ages to notice that the Gammel component in Gammelfleisch didn't use to be standard German, rather being familiar to me as a Scandinavian word for "old". Gammelfleisch, I assumed, was meat that was too old for human consumption.

According to de.wikipedia.org (translation mine):

"Gammel" is a Low German word, which means "old". Colloquially, according to Duden, Gammel indicates "cheap, worthless, unusable things of many sorts". Officially, the expression stands for food not fit for human consumption - the part of the catch which is used to make fish meal or fertilizer.

posted at: 19:30 | path: /D | permanent link to this entry