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September 7

Dreikäsehoch

I read a Donald Duck pocket books comic in German, where a young policeman accidentally botches up an important undercover operation by mistaking the officer in charge of the operation for an escaping criminal and arresting him, letting the real criminal get away. The officer says "Vielleicht solltest du erst mal das hier sehen, du Dreikäsehoch!" while holding up his badge.

Now I picked up from context that Dreikäsehoch is some kind of insult towards the young policeman's intelligence, but what does it exactly mean? JIP | Talk 23:04, 7 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

As far as I know, usually a humorous term for a child ("three-cheeses-high")... AnonMoos (talk) 02:52, 8 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Maybe you should see this first, three-cheeses-high! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 31.53.187.135 (talk) 08:12, 8 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

This word for small children (ca. 4–6, with a connotation of trying to do and learn about things not appropriate for their age) is considered antiquated and characteristic of an old-fashioned sppech style (cf. Wenn Sie diese Wörter kennen, sind Sie alt - "If you know these words, you're old"), but its frequent use by Disney translator Erika Fuchs and successors certainly helped to keep it alive. –Austronesier (talk) 08:30, 8 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

It was a Word of the Week entry on the blog of the German Embassy in Washington. There is a book (in German) with the title Alles über Micky Maus: Vom Dreikäsehoch zum Meisterdetektiv ("Everything about Mickey Mouse: From Dreikäsehoch to Master Detective"). This suggests that the term is somewhat specific to the Disney universe. If we had the title of the story using the term, maybe someone who has a collection of these stories could check of which English phrase this is a translation; perhaps "snotnose"? On the other hand, the German Wikipedia has an article Dreikäsehoch that states that the term has been in use since the 18th century and that its origin is not clear. (The Amazon page would have Disney be the "author" of the book mentioned above, but it is a collection of Mickey stories selected by Gerd Syllwasschy, some of which were translated by Erika Fuchs.) --Lambiam 20:06, 8 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Makes sense. The German article states: Ein Dreikäsehoch ist folglich so groß wie ein Stapel aus drei Käselaiben, meaning "A Dreikäsehoch is therefore as tall as a stack of three cheese loafs". Finnish has a similar expression: vaahtosammuttimen korkuinen, meaning "as tall as a fire extinguisher". JIP | Talk 22:47, 8 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The title of the story is "Ein Fall für Wachtmeister Karlo", i.e. "A case for policeman Pete". Pete is sentenced to help the police force for one week. At the last day, his partner (the young policeman) botches up the operation due to Pete's negligence. The policeman gets fired from the police, blaming Pete for it. Pete later makes up for it by disguising the policeman as a criminal and infiltrating the criminals who were the target of the operation, purposefully getting them and himself arrested. The police, knowing Pete was on their side, let him go. JIP | Talk 22:53, 8 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The original was written in Italian by Luca "Tito" Faraci under the title Agente Gambadilegno, il caso è tuo! ("Officer Pete, the Case Is Yours!").^[1] I don't know if it has been translated to other languages than German. --Lambiam 08:06, 9 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

It has also been translated to Finnish, but I don't remember where I read it or what the Finnish title was. I read it in Finnish first and in German later. I haven't read the original Italian story. JIP | Talk 09:10, 9 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The list of publications and translations can be found here. --Wrongfilter (talk) 09:20, 9 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The list does not contain any English publication. Funny how a comic that originally started in the United States is translated into almost every other European language except English. JIP | Talk 13:04, 9 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

French has the expression haut comme trois pommes ("as tall as three apples"), which the Dutch Wiktionary gives as the equivalent of drie turven hoog ("three peats tall"; not to be confused with a threepeat). Unlike the German univerbation, all are adjectives. The measurement units vary, but the magnitude of three is a universal constant. --Lambiam 20:09, 9 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]