emka
Junior Member
- Joined
- Jan 19, 2011
- Member Type
- Student or Learner
- Native Language
- German
- Home Country
- Germany
- Current Location
- Germany
It’s autumn and mushroom season. I had an interesting discussion with somebody yesterday about this activity, or rather about the correct English expression for it.
We (= German expression) “collect” or “gather” mushrooms because mushrooms are firmly rooted in the soil and patiently wait to be found and picked. The English native speaker said that in English you go mushroom “hunting”, which I found very amusing because it implies that there is a moving target (cf. pig hunting, deer hunting, i.e. the target normally running away from the hunter).
Is mushroom hunting widely used, or was this just a local American expression? And is my concept of hunting (pursuing a moving living object) wrong?
I realise that hunting is also used figuratively, e.g. job hunting, house hunting (target not moving), but that’s different because it’s not a living thing and you don’t actually bag a physical object.
We (= German expression) “collect” or “gather” mushrooms because mushrooms are firmly rooted in the soil and patiently wait to be found and picked. The English native speaker said that in English you go mushroom “hunting”, which I found very amusing because it implies that there is a moving target (cf. pig hunting, deer hunting, i.e. the target normally running away from the hunter).
Is mushroom hunting widely used, or was this just a local American expression? And is my concept of hunting (pursuing a moving living object) wrong?
I realise that hunting is also used figuratively, e.g. job hunting, house hunting (target not moving), but that’s different because it’s not a living thing and you don’t actually bag a physical object.