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Confirmante(n)

English translation: candidates for confirmation; confirmee

20:01 Mar 9, 2021
German to English translations [PRO]
Social Sciences - History
German term or phrase: Confirmante(n)
Found in the parish minutes of a small, rural German Lutheran church in Nebraska (from 1878): “Die anschaffung der Kohlen für die Confirmante sollte von der ganzen Gemeinde geschehen und hat jedes Gemeindeglied 25 Zent dazu zu bezahlen.”

I'm puzzled by the word "Confirmante" here! It looks suspiciously like "Konfirmanden," but why would a group of confirmands have any particular need for coal???? I'm assuming this is some alternate, obsolete word for some sort of furnace, but I haven't been able to verify anything like that.

In a preceding entry, a parish member had offered to build a "Befriedigung" around the church and cemetery. That was another puzzler until I found Befriedigung = fence or enclosure, in Adler's 1863 Dictionary of the German and English languages.

Any idea what "Confirmante" could possibly mean here? It appears at the very end of a line of text on the right edge of a worn page, so it may have once include an extra "n" on the end.
Timoshka
Local time: 20:43
English translation:candidates for confirmation; confirmee
Explanation:
We may find that the slang word of 'Kohle' meaning colloquially AmE 'dough' or BrE 'lolly' does derive from this Protestant tradition of heaping gifts - coal as a symbolic way of keeping your faith alive - upon the confirmatory candidates.
Selected response from:

Adrian MM.
Austria
Grading comment
Thank you!
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
3 +2candidates for confirmation; confirmee
Adrian MM.


Discussion entries: 3





  

Answers


42 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +2
Confirmante(n) > hist. Konfirmand/en/
candidates for confirmation; confirmee


Explanation:
We may find that the slang word of 'Kohle' meaning colloquially AmE 'dough' or BrE 'lolly' does derive from this Protestant tradition of heaping gifts - coal as a symbolic way of keeping your faith alive - upon the confirmatory candidates.

Example sentence(s):
  • Wie wichtig ist euch Konfirmation/Kommunion? Was bedeutet das überhaupt? Bedeutet das den Kindern wirklich etwas oder geht es nur umdie Feier und die Kohle/die Geschenke?
  • Konfirmation nur der Kohle wegen – man darf vermuten, dass die Wahrheit wie immer etwas vielschichtiger ist.

    Reference: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konfirmation
    Reference: http://www.lokalkompass.de/duesseldorf/c-ratgeber/glaube-ode...
Adrian MM.
Austria
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 20
Grading comment
Thank you!

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  philgoddard: Probably. Kohle does mean cash, as in your two examples, but I'm not convinced by your "protestant tradition".
50 mins
  -> Protestant is spelt with a capital 'P' and the tradition of gifts for Konfirmation / e.g. for my relatives of the AB Konfession in Vienna/ is not mine
neutral  Ulrike Kraemer: Im Text heißt es "Anschaffung der KohleN" ... where does lolly come into that? And don't forget the text is from 1878.
12 hrs
  -> Kohlen can still be gifts. 'Warum nun aber Kohle? Heinz Küpper (Illustriertes Lexikon der deutschen Umgangssprache, Bd. 4, 1983) meint den Ausdruck auf eine Redewendung aus dem 18. Jahrhundert zurückführen zu können' https://gfds.de/kohle-fuer-geld/
agree  Gordon Matthews
13 hrs
  -> Thanks and danke.
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