Way to go, poor man's Mudede. This building is stupid. The part on top of the head is lovely, though.

Or on top of the chin, whatever.

What's with everyone imitating Charles lately?

Dude. Kaputt is a loan word in German. Get your etymology straight:

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term…

kaput 1895, "finished, worn out, dead," from Ger. kaputt, probably a misunderstanding of the phrase capot machen, a partial translation of Fr. faire capot, a phrase meaning "lose all the tricks in piquet," an obsolete card game, from Fr. capot, lit. "cover, bonnet."

Also, modern German for "head" is "Kopf", which has a clear etymological similarity, and "caput" is Latin for "head". So German "Kaputt" is connected via Latin via French. It's a little like French "loyal" vs. "legal", which ultimately have the same roots, except "legal" was borrowed directly from Latin, whereas "loyal" evolved with the language.

That building is la Crème de la Dumb.

Oh dear, so many etymologically challenged folks.

First of all, the English word "head" and the German word "Haupt" together both descend from a Proto-Germanic form "haubudan" or "haubudam" (spoken maybe around AD 100 and before).

The Proto-Germanic word descends from an Indo-European word "kaputom" or "kauputom" (spoken maybe 1000 to 2000 BC, though this is arguable). Now, this root is also the origin of Latin word "caput" meaning "head" (whence our terms "capital, capitol, chief" and the French "chef," and indirectly of Spanish "cabeza," etc.).

Now, the German word "kaputt" is itself borrowed from the French expression "e^tre capot," which is a 19th century idiom that basically means "to loose everything." Our use of it English actually comes via Yiddish, which is closely related to German. In French the term "capot" itself means "hood" of a car (but it does also derive from Latin "caput").

The German word "Kopf," by contrast, is not related to any of these *at all*. It is not a Proto-Germanic or Indo-European word at all (it's probably originally Etruscan or something, but it's unknown); it was borrowed around AD 800 from Latin "cuppa" (meaning "cup") into Old High German, originally "Kopp" then later "Kopf." The Germanic peoples often referred to "heads" as "cups" or "bowls" because the skulls of enemies used to be used as eating vessels (cf. the Scandinavians still say "skaal" when drinking; that word is related to the word for "skull").

Looks like a "Klotzkopf" to me ["Blockhead"].

Not only that, but how would Proto-Germanic have had the opportunity to borrow anything from Sanskrit? Was there a lot of cultural mingling between the two? Proto-Germanic was spoken, say, 500 BC.

Sanskrit and P-G are sister languages. (Or cousins-once-removed.)

And actually, I don't think there even was a Sanskrit when Proto-Germanic was spoken.

PIE is the key.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en…