Blinky the Shark > wrote:

> Yeah, what does the Oxford English Dictionary know, anyway?

In this case, not quite enough (and I am speaking of the full entry, not
of your somewhat abbreviated one). Selters water is still very popular
throughout Germany and is easy enough to find. See how the bottles and
labels look like: <http://www.selters.de/cms/images/491.gif>. It has
always been "officially" called "Selters" or "Selterswasser", never
"seltzer". As far as the dictionary is concerned, this is the most
important thing.

Now an even more important thing, for anyone at all interested in the
actual water: The water indeed used to come from Niederselters in Taunus
until 1999, but has been since produced in Selters an der Lahn, about 40
miles to the north. This means that only the trademark is left - one
can no longer get the original Selters water unless one comes to
Niederselters (there is apparently still enough for local consumption).

"Seltzer" is an English corruption of the original name and also a poor
attempt to imitate the original by carbonating plain water. That said,
I like plain carbonated water, i.e. seltzer, well enough. Alka-Seltzer
also comes from that English corruption.

Does all of the above belong in the FAQ? :-)

Victor