Re: Schöffe I

>***R Torsten is right in his intuition, as far as English is
>concerned --"scooping the law" sounds unethical or criminal.
>"To scoop someone" means to beat someone to the punch and what
>is implied in this metaphor to an English speaker is --"to beat
>a rap, to circumvent the law." German, like law, is often
>quizzical for English speakers. Perhaps that why in English we
>call lawyers "shysters" i.e. "scheisters".

(Webster online says: Origin of SHYSTER / probably from German
Scheisser, literally, defecator / First Known Use: 1844)

Of course. Different regional/geographical and historica
experiences, different lexical + semantic evolutions. Also
cf. Ger. Knabe & Knappe v. Engl. knave; Gift ("poison") v. gift,
sterben v. starve (and many other examples).

George