Talk:Rote Beete
Add topicLatest comment: 13 years ago by Stephen G. Brown
A comment on http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Talk:beetroot says that the derivation of Rote is in fact 'root' not 'red', and http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rote_Bete says the red colour only came in during the 19th century, so it is possible that 'red beet' is a folk etymology? Ozaru 11:30, 13 January 2011 (UTC)
- I think you are confusing something. rot is the German word for red. rōt is the Anglosaxon word for root. German rot and Anglosaxon rōt are not related and did not evolve from the same etymon. While the German article says the red color was bred into the beet in the 19th century, it does not mention when they started calling it Rote Beete. It is logical that when one cultivar was bred to be a uniform deep red in color, the Germans started calling it the red beet. —Stephen (Talk) 15:32, 13 January 2011 (UTC)
- The term first appears in the 1870s.[1] (but with "rote" not capitalized). 71.66.97.228 23:12, 13 January 2011 (UTC)
- That is normal for German. All nouns are always capitalized (Beete), but adjectives are not capitalized unless the first word in a sentence or the first word in a proper noun; e.g., die amerikanische Bedrohung. —Stephen (Talk) 02:18, 14 January 2011 (UTC)