P-38 Safe and Fire labels, German language equivalent? Gesichert

[Xerato]

Split off from the other thread:
http://forum.lugerforum.com/showthread.php?p=202719

Originally Posted by Xerato

Why is it that on the Luger, the German word for "Safe" is "Gesichert", thus starting with a "G".
But on the P-38, the safety lever is labeled with "S" and "F", even though written for Germans?
Was it a coincidence that the German word equivalents of "Safe" and "Fire" also happened to start with 'S' and 'F' like the English words? Why not 'G' for Gesichert as was shown on the Luger?

To continue conversation here in the proper forum:

Originally Posted by alanint

Good question on the safety markings. I think mainly because there is no enough flat surface on a P38 to write out Gesichert and "S" and "F" work just fine.

I'm sure our German linguists will comment, but I also think "Gesichert" was an archaic word meaning "Made safe" or "To make Safe" where simply "safe" would do.

According to Google Translate: (and we all know how reliable those computer-translators can be )

The Luger's Gesichert means 'Secured'

I looked up German translations for 'Fire', 'shoot', and 'safe' but there are so many possible nouns and adjectives for German translation I can't tell which one would be expected use in this context.

Playing around on the translator, I see it could have been worse:
One possible translation for "Fire" or "Shoot" could be the German word "schießen".
One possible word for "Safe" or "secure" could have been "festmachen" or "Fest"
Imagine the confusion that would have caused to us Americans if the Germans had used those words, thus the 'S' label would actually the firing position! and vice-versa!

Maybe someone who speaks both German and English can shed some light on this?

[nukem556]

Well, the word "sicher" in German can mean "safe" or "secured", and "feuer" means "fire", so S and F DO make sense....

[Aaron]

I think we're on the right track here. "Gesichert" is a fancy way of saying "Sicher". IMHO, the first means "made safe", and the second means "safe."

[Olle]

My best take on it (trying to remember the German I learned in school 35 years ago...) is kind of like what nukem556 said: The prefix "ge" is used for past tense so "sicher" means "safe" or "secure" and "gesichered" means "secured". An "S" instead of a "G" makes sense to me.

[Vlim]

Yep.

Gesichert is 'Made Safe'.
Sicher is Safe.
Sicherung is Safety. (as in the 'safety mechanism').

I prefer 'Rust' on mine