Fünf Gerichte, die ich besonders gern esse

What does “Gericht” mean in German?

Das Gericht is the plate of pizza or döner you order — and the exact same word is a court of law. It’s not a coincidence: both trace back to richten, “to arrange, prepare, or set right.” A cooked dish is food arranged and made ready; a court is where matters are set right. One verb of putting-in-order, two very different results.

The thread runs deep in German. Richten can mean to arrange, prepare, or set right — and to judge a case — and the ge- form gives you the finished product of that arranging, whether it lands on your plate or on the docket. (Note: for laying a table, the everyday phrase is den Tisch decken, not richten.) So fünf Gerichte is five dishes here, but drop it in a legal setting and you’re talking tribunals.