Why German pubs are called Zum or Zur something

Random questions, placed randomly in Translations:

1. Why are most German pubs named "Zum Dingsbums" or "Zur Standort"? Why is a pub "To the" anything? Is it supposed to be a toast?

2. If zu der can be contracted to zur and zu dem to zum, why is there no zu die -> zue?

1) Just because. The British pubs are just named "thingy" or "place".

2) Because zu is always followed by dative - the dative feminine is der and the dative plural is den. You'll probably find quite a few "Zu den <somethings>" or "Zur <something>"

1. Fair point
2. So why not zun?

Because that isn't a valid German contraction (for whatever reason). It's "zu den". (see 1.)

Sorry, that's the best I can do.

For the same damned reason that "there're" and "here're" aren't legitimate contractions in English even though "we're" and "you're" are valid.

woof.

Actually, when speaking sloppily, zu den can sound like zun, but it doesn't exist in writing. Probably because it sounds very much alike zum, and languages, although having a tendency to develop more economic (shorter/simpler forms), at the same time follow the principle of clarity, avoiding ambiguity.

BTW, zu in the context of inns (Zum goldenen Hirschen) should rather be translated with 'at'.

Interesting, but still illogical. Does "At the Golden Buck" make any more sense than "To the Golden Buck"? The definite article is enough in English.

I'm speculating a bit here, but perhaps it has to do with the iron signs that served as landmarks for the customers, many of whom couldn't read. Perhaps they would say, hey, let's stop by at the inn with that duck/lion on its sign, and later on, the pub's name evolved to At the Lion.

Which reminds me of a classic Manta joke, from back in the day, when the shops still closed at 6:30 p.m. (aside from long Thursdays):

A Manta driver calls out to a passerby, "Eh, man - wo geht es hier nach Aldi?"

The passerby responds, "Zu Aldi! Zu! Zu!"

The Manta driver, puzzled, "Was? Schon halb sieben?"

LOL. One should add, a Manta driver in the Ruhrpott, where people's usage of prepositions is weird.

Prepositions are difficult in many languages, English included. Still a minefield for me. The Germans like to complicate things, though. I heard a non-native speaker ask: Why do you say "Ich gehe durch den Wald hindurch. Isn't durch enough?"

Fair enough... but there're is okay in my book... depends where you're from!

I asked my wife the same question years ago because I kept messing up "nach Hause" and "zu Hause". She tried to explain it thusly: You're normally at home, so if you're away from it, you're going back (nach) to it. Don't forget,that "zu" doesn't just mean "to"; the usage for pubs probably reflects a more archaic sense of closed/shut (almost like hotel stationery that says "in residence at the X Hotel") with the "moving towards" grammar tacked on later.

She ended up telling me the Aldi joke mentioned above as a memory aid.

My hometown is near King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, which is a town named after a tavern/roadhouse/pub.

In mediaeval times houses had no numbers but names like "Zum Goldenen Frosch" or something like that.
After the introduction of numbers only the pubs kept their names

except the bit I bolded can't be correct, because when motion is involved "zu" takes the accusative not the dative, so in this case it is referring to position not motion. My guess is that it simply refers to the position. You are "at the" or "in the" so and so Gaststätte.

zu is always dative, no matter what. in german class we learned to memorize the dative prepositions by singing aus außer bei mit, nach seit, von zu to the tune of "eine kleine nachtmusik". it's really helped out!