this post was submitted on 26 Nov 2025
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I Didn’t Have Eggs
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In German, we call it a "toe of garlic", so I was just wondering, if "cloves" is a different word for "toe" and they somehow added toes into their food.
For others wondering what "cloves" is, I'm guess this is what they put in: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clove
I don't know how relevant this is, but in English, the word "cloven" commonly refers to the hooves of large mammals that are split into "toes" for lack of a better word. For example, pigs have cloven hooves, but horses do not.
So it's a little amusing to me that the English and German ways of referring to a piece of garlic are different...but not really!
Cloven is the past participle of cleave. The hooves are cloven because they are split in two like deer or pig hooves rather than like a horse's.
"Zehe" and "Zeh" are different words and have no connection. Nothing to do with feet.
Edit: Im wrong
Hmm, this disagrees with you: https://www.dwds.de/wb/Zehe
Oh wow. I take my comment back. Never seen "Zehe" used for toe.
Could be the same origin then.
Well, you did have me questioning my life choices, because I would've also intuitively called the foot appendage "der Zeh", but a clove of garlic "die Knoblauchzehe".
But yeah, apparently both "der Zeh" und "die Zehe" are valid singular forms for "Zehen". 🫠