"Vacuum Cleaner" in other languages

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eurekaprince

eurekaprince

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Joined
Jan 4, 2009
Messages
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Location
Montreal, Canada
Over the years, I have come to learn the translations of "vacuum cleaner" in other languages in order to find more entries on eBay, or to find more clips on YouTube. Because of the North American Free Trade Agreement, most of us in Canada, the U.S.A. and Mexico know "vacuum cleaner" in English, French and Spanish because all the boxes, instruction manuals and disposable bag packages show all three languages. Here is what I have learnt so far:

French = aspirateur (knew this as a young kid growing up in Montreal)
Spanish = aspiradora
German = staubsauger
Swedish = dammsugare
Hebrew = sho'ev avak
Hungarian = porsivo

Jump right into this thread if you have any other translations to share with the gang!
 
A close friend of my Mum's is french, and I remember we went to her house and when we got there she said "excuse me, I am just going to pass the aspirateur". I was only about 7 or 8 and I thought "really? Oh, well done!" LOL
 
only thing I can add is to your German one.

Staubsauger mit der electro bürste (hope I remembered how to spell that)

Vacuum cleaner with electric brush.
 
Bodenstaubsauger

Pretty right, that is "canister vacuum"
Boden = floor (as the main unit stands on the floor)

here is all:
Bodenstaubsauger (floor standing vacuum) = canister
Stielstaubsauger (stick vacuum)
Handstaubsauger (hand vac, up until the 70s this was also a stick vac, but with the upcoming battery operated hand vacs, now it means just hand vacuum)
Akkusauger = battery operated vacuum (Akku = rechargeable battery, Akkumulator)
Autosauger (self explaining = car vac)
Klopfsauger (up until Hoover left the "as it beats as it..." campaign) = literally "beating vacuum", now called Bürstsauger (brushing vacuum)
Kesselsauger (literally "bucket vacuum") = colloq. for "Nass- und Trockensauger" (wet and dry vac, shop vac)

here are some colloquialisms:
"Schlitten" = sledge = canister
"Heulbesen" = nordish German/Friesisch for "whining broom"
"Saugstauber" (a wrong mix-up of letters, litterally "suction duster", mainly in the south, only in spoken language)

I find it very interesting how the companies' marketing campaigns can influence everyday language: Hoover's "beating vacuum" has become "brushing vacuum" as today most of the beater bars have gone.

In the 70s Lux tried to introduce "luxen" as a new German verb, very much like "hoovering" in the UK, but they never made it beyond their manuals and brochures. It is still "saugen" or "staubsaugen" today.
Funny enough: Very thoroughly vacuuming something has entered German language as "kirben" (to kirby s.th.) (pronounce "körben"/"kørben", just like in English)

(And don't forget the common beer joke about "today I chased a Vorwerker away with this: ".(fill in what you like)...." - since dumb-assing a door-to-door salesman is considered a hero's victory among drunk late-night fellows....*eyes roll here*)
 
Wow, Joe, that was quite a lesson. I had German friends in the 70's who laughed at my collection and said that Germans would NEVER collect vacuum cleaners (though they never explained WHY)....

Italian: (noun) aspirazione (but it might me a vacuum, as in a void); there's also vuoto
Anybody out there speak Italian? Tommy??
 
what? no German collectors? invite them to my place for a sh

I DO collect. So do dozens here.

aspirador (aspirateur), aspirare etc. = this is so interesting as Latin "aspirare" means "to breathe in".
Other languages have it more down to the facts (Swedish, German, Finnish and all those): Staubsauger, damsugare = dust sucker
(Remember that Electrolux slogan gone wrong: "Nothing sucks like an Electrolux")?
English is more into the theory of it all: vacuum cleaner (a unit producing a "vacuum" or let it be a cavity of lower pressure than the surrounding medium and therefore cleaning something).
Very interesting how these different approaches are made! I love languages!
 
P.S.: "aspirazione"

Guessing from the construction of that word (having "-zione" in it) I am pretty sure this must be "suction" (just like the English syllable "-tion")
So this would be "suction" or suction power, but although I can get a tiny grasp of what is spoken in Italian, I cannot speak it.
Wrong or right? Italians, please help out!
 
And in Japanese....

Vacuum cleaner is pronounced "denkisojiki."

It literally translates to "electric (denki) cleaner/duster/sweeper (sojiki)."

"Kuruma ni denkisojiki o suru" means to vacuum out a car! :)
 
Zai Zhongguo...

In mandarin Chinese, vacuum cleaner is pronounced "zhenkong xichenqi."

spelled phonetically it comes out to "jen-kong shi-chen-chee."

But make sure your tones are correct or you may say something completely different!


"Zhege Zhongguo zhenkong xichenqi shi mamahuhu." This Chinese vacuum cleaner is so-so.
 
Thanks for all your posts everyone!!! Very interesting...

Love the Japanese version...denkisojiki!!!! Gotta use that one of these days...."I need some dust bags for my Hoover denkisojiki!!!!!

The Danish Nilfisk website uses the word "stovsugere"....

The Philips website teaches us how to write the word in Dutch: stofzuiger! see link below...

Now we need Greek, Russian and some other languages like Portuguese and Tagalag.....

http://www.philips.nl/c/stofzuigers/36657/cat/nl/
 

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