7? 9?

[oloriel]

Ok. This is (as usually) silly. So, "Cloud No 9" was on the car radio, and it suddenly made me wonder.

In German, it is Wolke Sieben (literally "cloud seven"). In English, it's "cloud (number) nine."

In German, it is Katzen haben sieben Leben ("cats have seven lives"). In English, they have nine.

Does anyone have further examples, ideas, or explanations why Germans only get seven of nine? [... ok. Very weak joke. Sorry.]

Addendum: What is it about the seven anyway? The world was made in seven days, there's seven dwarves, seven wonders of the world, seven days in a week, seven muses, seven chakras, seven seas... and the German version of the "It was a dark and stormy night, and the skipper said to the mate..." story goes Es war einmal ein Mann, der hatte sieben Söhne... ("There was a man who had seven sons...") Oh, the conspiracy theories!

Edit: Ok, the German cloud seven could be explained via an alternative version of the phrase: auf Wolke Sieben sein ("to be on cloud seven") is used synonymously with im siebten Himmel sein ("to be in seventh heaven"). The seventh heaven is apparently an islamic thing: The place of final transfiguration, i.e. the place where everybody wants to end up. A-hah! Now we only need to know where cloud nine comes from.

Comments

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Ieh, geh mir weg mit Zarathustra! ;) *philokurs-opfer*

Ne, in was für tiefe mystische Dinge uns so eine einfache Redensart führen kann! Aber für die Wolke neun haben wir immer noch keine Erklärung, oder?

[allamistako.livejournal.com]

Drei als heilige Zahl, und 9 als 3 x 3?

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Möglich, ja... aber heilig ist ja nicht zwingend gleich glückselig. ;)