Building services

The eighth entry, der Boiler, looks like the most English word on the page and is the one most likely to be misread. In German it is a water heater: a tank, usually electric, that heats and stores hot water for a kitchen or a bathroom, often small enough to sit under a sink. The appliance an English speaker calls a boiler, the one that heats the radiators, is der Heizkessel, or der Kessel on site; hung on a kitchen wall and burning gas, it is die Therme, and one that recovers the heat in its flue gas is der Brennwertkessel. So « the boiler has packed up » is die Heizung ist ausgefallen or der Kessel ist kaputt. Say der Boiler ist kaputt and a German plumber will expect warm radiators and a cold tap. The word was borrowed from English, but on the way it narrowed to the one appliance that makes hot water for washing.