September 23, 1997

gesundheit

Today my mother sneezed and I replied, "Ghesuntite." Assuming that I've even spelled it correctly, why did I say it and what did I mean?

(1) You spelled it incorrectly; it should be gesundheit.

(2 & 3) You said it because you're taught to say "gesundheit" after someone sneezes, and you didn't mean anything specific. After all, when you say "God bless you," are you consciously wishing God's blessing on someone? No, you're probably just saying it as a conventional response. Try answering literally when people ask "How are you?" and you'll quickly get the point: some expressions should not be taken too seriously.

With that out of the way, we can get down to business. Gesundheit literally means 'health'. It comes from German--no, not Yiddish--and is formed from gesund 'healthy', related to the sound in "safe and sound" that we discussed recently (and I'm glad to have the chance to bring it up here, because I had wanted to mention it then but was running out of room), and -heit, a noun suffix denoting state, condition, character, nature, etc. that is equivalent to the English suffix -hood. "Healthy-hood," overliterally.

Gesundheit has been found in English since the 1910s, but is probably earlier; even the first example suggests that it was already a conventional response to a sneeze. It is chiefly an Americanism that originated in German-speaking areas but is now widespread.