Atavisms of Acetic Acid

As you all know, I am a chemist. I spent quite some time on studying the art of modyfing matter. What may be unbeknownst to at least a few of you is that I like to study languages as well. What I mean is that I of course enjoy expressing myself in a foreign idiom, but my interest goes well beyond that. I have been intrigued for a long time by the relationship (as well as the lack thereof) between the languages I am familiar with. That is why I so much enjoyed reading an article on the relationship between German and English. Please go ahead and read it for yourself here (in English). More specifically, it is about how native speakers of English are amused by German words. English, due to its history, is a hybrid of a Germanic root, to which Latin and French influences were added over the course of time. Now, that is not breaking news, but as a consequence speakers of English are equipped with a lot of synonyms. As it is common with synonyms, they mean the same thing, but as they are still different words, they are not fully identical. Typically the word of Romance origin is more sophisticated than its Germanic counterpart. I'd like to mention that on the other hand I'm stunned by how the grammar of German and Latin alike are highly regulatory for the use of verbs ("conjugation"; e.g., ich esse, du isst etc.), but English as the hybrid of both is not (I eat, you eat etc.). Now, the source of humour for English native speakers comes from the fact that German does not makes use as extensively of Romance words as English. Thus a concept or an idea that is actually sophisticated and would call for a Romance word is likely to be expressed by a Germanic one in German. The said article presents hydrogen as an example (a good one, in my opinion). Although it is actually Greek and not Latin, it is very illustrative. Literally it means "water maker", as anything hydro- is connected with water, and -gen is an abbreviated form of to generate. In German, however, hydrogen is called Wasserstoff. Due to its homophony with "water stuff", it makes a joke. The homophony is somewhat misleading, as Stoff and stuff are not exactly identical. While they are obviously connected etymologically, Stoff can mean cloth as well as matter, while stuff is a rather casual, if not derogatory word for item. In a more abstract way, the two words are of course still related, as an item that is not further specified is essentially just ... matter.
This is as far as the article goes. I would like to add that not only a misperceived level of elaboration may be a source of humour, but generally any example where two originally identical languages have diverged. A favorite example of mine is the German word Geist, which must be case-sensitively translated as ghost, mind, or spirit, respectively. But in essence a ghost is just a disembodied mind.
A better punchline, however, is the German expression for standing in line, which literally means standing in a snake (imagine the line beig so long that it meanders like a snake). Another funny example stems from a personal experience of mine. A few years ago I joined my then-colleague (now-still-friend) Neetha from the U.S., who was at the time living and working in Berlin, for a night out, along with her husband and some of his colleagues. At some point we were discussing a topic that I have forgotten now, but I do remember this reply of mine, "I am too phlegmatic for that". Neetha accused me of using big words, as she did not understand what I was saying. Indeed, the word "phlegmatic" is of Greek origin, meaning literally covered in "slime" or "saliva". Hence the English connotation of "phlegmatic": sick. Someone who is phlegmatic has their nose full of snot and is suffering from a cold. The German connotation, however, has shifted a bit: a sick person has dampened spirits, and in German "phlegmatic" ("phlegmatisch") denotes someone who is too laid-back to be upset or excited.
Since at the outset I stressed on the fact that I am a chemist, I would like to conclude with another chemical example. Similar to hydrogen/Wasserstoff, oxygen is called Sauerstoff in German. Both speakers of English and German will immediately recognize the root "sauer", or "sour". It reflects the (later falsified) view that oxygen be necessary in molecules of acidic compounds. Given this it is quite ironic that one modern-day definition of acids relies on the presence and exchange of hydrogen atoms, our previously discussed example. (Nevertheless, oxygen-bonded hydrogen atoms are particularly easily exchanged, so there was at least some truth to it.) - Obviously a thing called acid in English is called Säure in German. While the German word relies on the flavor as such, the English word is derived from the Latin word for vinegar, acetum. Conceptually, this means acids are perceived as the essence of vinegar. As really the reverse is true (the essence of vinegar is one acid), vinegar essence was later specifiec as acetic acid, literally vinegaric vinegar essence (Essigsäure in German).
Finally, you may have wondered why I called this "atavisms" of acetic acid in the first place. Well, an atavism is some genetic information that is no longer expressed in further evolved species, but is still inherited from earlier ones in the genetic code. I thought this is a good metaphor for the topic presented here, plus it alliterates nicely with the rest of the title, don't you think?
PS: I just remember another good example of how words from diverged languages can be a sense of humour. I have been to the Netherlands once, which is inhabited by a serious cycling nation. Of course this results in a vast number of traffic signs referring to the bikes. The funny thing is the Dutch word for bicycle: "fietsen". A Dutch bike is a "footie", because you use your feet to make it move. But it gets even better than that: a motorized bike is a "bromfietsen", "brom" being just an onomatopoetic (i.e., "soundpainting") reference to the noise of the engine. This casual description is very delightful ("cute") to my German ears. - I count on the understanding of all potential Dutch readers and/or their affiliates. Maybe they would like to contribute as well in the comments section?