Talk:Kopf und Kragen

danger

@Fytcha "Danger" seems like a poor translation, but I'm not sure how to improve it. Any ideas? Jberkel 10:02, 30 June 2022 (UTC)

@Jberkel: Very difficult to define indeed. To me personally, it seems like of the opposite polarity, so I'd define it as something along the lines of "safety". This is because "jemanden um etwas bringen" means to deprive them of it (hence, "jemanden um Kopf und Kragen bringen" (to put someone in danger) = to deprive them of safety). Similarly, "um etwas reden" means to talk with the aim of keeping something ("um sein Leben reden") which also fits my polarity better. — Fytcha〈 T | L | C 〉 16:35, 2 July 2022 (UTC)

I think I made a mistake in my above analysis of sich um Kopf und Kragen reden. Sometimes, um X reden (as in um sein Leben reden, just like um sein Leben kämpfen (missing sense in um?)) means to talk with the aim to keep X but this is not the meaning of sich um Kopf und Kragen reden. Here it is more akin to the um as used in jdn. um sein Geld betrügen, as in, to make the target lose something in the act of something else: betrügen + making the target lose Geld > reden + making the target (with sich: oneself) lose Kopf und Kragen (which is coherent with interpreting it as meaning safety). — Fytcha〈 T | L | C 〉 15:34, 5 July 2022 (UTC)