September 30, 2005

Steinläuse

Help! I've got a puzzler. I'm writing about a painting made in 1959 that has the title "Steinläuse." So I thought, huh, what're those? and I went to the internet, which never fails me. I found out that they're not real bugs (duh, I suppose I might have guessed), but something that Loriot invented in 1976. This according to the Wikipedia. Now the problem, you may notice, is that my painting predates the Loriot sketch by more than 15 years. So was the Steinlaus already a joke, like the Jackalope, that Loriot just elaborated on? Any ideas about where I might get some kind of a reference for it?

Posted by Heather at September 30, 2005 09:11 AM

Comments

These probably aren't immediately helpful at all, but interesting.

http://www.pschyrembel.com/p/20_23_ENG_HTML.htm (near the end)

http://www.margaret-marks.com/Transblawg/archives/001050.html

Posted by: Indri at October 4, 2005 07:22 PM

Thanks Indri--I'd seen the Pschyrembel page, but not the other reference...curious.


Posted by: Heather [TypeKey Profile Page] at October 4, 2005 09:32 PM

I'm pretty confident that Loriot invented his Steinlaus all by himself - the name does not seem very far fetched, and as far as I can see, there are no predecessors in things Steinlaus.

However, the fact that the word is probably not too far-fetched also indicates that someone might have come up with it earlier - so it is quite likely that you are looking at two completely distinct things here.

Posted by: rrho at October 25, 2005 06:49 AM

Thanks, Rochus. I have come to believe this is probably true...

Posted by: Heather [TypeKey Profile Page] at October 25, 2005 07:51 AM