Hände falten, Goschn halten
fold your hands and shut up (Bavarian-Austrian phrase: be quiet and behave)
Origin
A Bavarian-Austrian saying; 'Goschn' (also 'Gosche/Goschen') means mouth/gob. Literally 'fold your hands and keep your mouth shut' - a demand to be quiet and obedient. It goes back to early-20th-century schoolroom rhymes and prayer discipline, and today is mostly used critically, to denounce meek conformity and blind faith in authority.
Building blocks
Words in this expression
Grammar that uses this word
- Two-way prepositions with accusative (Wohin? / where to)Wechselpräpositionen mit Akkusativ (Wohin?)
- Temporal preposition 'vor' (before, + dative)Temporale Präposition 'vor' (+ Dativ)
- Temporal clause with 'bevor' (before)Temporalsatz mit 'bevor'
- Infinitive construction 'ohne ... zu' / 'anstatt ... zu' (without / instead of doing)Infinitivkonstruktion 'ohne ... zu' / 'anstatt ... zu'
Examples
Jetzt is : Hände , Goschn !
Quiet now: fold your hands and shut up!