Talk:wir haben es nicht gewußt

RFV discussion: May–June 2018

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wir haben es nicht gewußt

Supposedly Dutch, but looks German to me. SemperBlotto (talk) 04:18, 12 May 2018 (UTC)

It's German for "we did not know", but the Dutch understand it perfectly well and can also say it. In the years after World War II, it was an ironic phrase in the Netherlands used to describe the attitude of the German population in regard to the Holocaust. I suppose it's similar to fait accompli, which is French, yet also English. —Stephen ^(Talk) 05:37, 12 May 2018 (UTC)

This is correct, the title of this talk for example refers to it. There's more borrowed phrases like it in Dutch, e.g. Befehl ist Befehl which is used when someone attempts to justify questionable actions by referring to rules/laws/orders. — Mnemosientje (t · c) 21:30, 12 May 2018 (UTC)

@Mnemosientje: Danke schön! Alexis Jazz (talk) 00:45, 13 May 2018 (UTC)

Nice. Do note though that while neither of these is a proverb, you did use proverb as the part-of-speech parameter in the {{head}} template in your entries. (Same goes for some other recent entries you created.) I've fixed it, but just a heads up for the future. — Mnemosientje (t · c) 02:24, 13 May 2018 (UTC)

Citations:wir haben es nicht gewußt, w:nl:Wir haben es nicht gewußt Alexis Jazz (talk) 23:44, 12 May 2018 (UTC)

This should definitely be kept, and kudos to Alexis for adding this important phrase. It might need a usage note to clarify that using this in the second sense is often counterproductive. ←₰-→ Lingo ^Bingo _Dingo (talk) 14:38, 14 May 2018 (UTC)

I agree, the second sense is a bit odd imo but there are cites for it. Perhaps some sort of {{label}}? — Mnemosientje (t · c) 12:00, 15 May 2018 (UTC)

• RFV passed. —Μετάknowledge^{discuss/deeds} 23:30, 21 June 2018 (UTC)