gesundheits

Updated: May 24, 2025

Then she trailed along bravely with her responses for ten or fifteen minutes, but it was no use I had more sneezes in my system than there are "Gesundheits!" in the entire German nation, including principalities, possessions across the sea, and the Musical Union. "John," she ventured after a time, "you are getting a cold!" "I'm not getting it," I sniffed; "I have it now."

George V. (George Vere) Hobart - You Should Worry Says John Henry

If the family were a bit old-fashioned, you would be startled and abashed by hearing the "prosits" and "Gesundheits" from the company, wishes that it might be for your advantage and health sonorously given, with much friendly nodding in your direction. This is a curious survival of an old superstition that sneezing perhaps opened a passage through which an evil spirit might enter the body.

James Kendall Hosmer - The Last Leaf : Observations, during Seventy-Five Years, of Men and Events in America and Europe