(Animal) terms from road traffic
On my trip through sensationally beautiful Namibia, I was finally given a pictorial explanation of some terms that are quite familiar from our road traffic:
The term "elephant race" is the term for the situation in which one truck overtakes another on a multi-lane road, i.e. a highway, with very little difference in speed. The maneuver takes kilometers and a long queue of cars forms behind the overtaking truck.
The "crosswalk" (see picture above) is marked by white stripes on the road where pedestrians are allowed to cross the road. The term was first used in the 1950s in the German city of Hamburg. At that time, however, our current crosswalks were still called "thick line chains" in official German. In an elaborate campaign on April 24, 1954, accompanied by the Hamburger Abendblatt newspaper, drivers who behaved particularly considerately at pedestrian crossings were to be awarded a "good point".
Drivers who stopped at crosswalks were given a badge with a zebra on it. The abbreviation "zebra" stood for "sign of a particularly considerate driver". Since then, all Germans soon started calling crosswalks "crosswalks". Probably the most famous crosswalk is on "Abbey Road" in London - made famous by the Beatles cover of the 1969 album of the same name.
"This sh...traffic makes me sick to my stomach." The exclamation "I've got such a throat!" is often combined with the gesture of indicating the size of one's throat with one's hand to emphasize one's statement. The saying also refers to the swelling of the veins in the neck area when you get really angry.
