Word Of The Day: Gesundheit
chiefly US
— used to wish good health to someone who has sneezed
chiefly US
Did You Know?
When English speakers hear achoo, they usually respond with either gesundheit or God bless you. Gesundheit was borrowed from German, where it literally means "health"; it was formed by a combination of gesund ("healthy") and -heit
("-hood"). Wishing a person good health when they sneezed was
traditionally believed to forestall the illness that a sneeze often
portends. God bless you had a similar purpose, albeit with more
divine weight to the well-wishing. It was once believed that the soul
could exit the body during a sneeze, causing ill health, so folks said
"God bless you" to ward off this danger. Gesundheit, at one
time, also served as a toast when drinking (much like its English
counterpart, "to your health"), but this usage is now mostly obsolete.
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