What does “Pflaster” mean in German?

When little Anna scrapes her knee in this beach story, her mother reaches for a Pflaster — a band-aid. The same word also means pavement: Kopfsteinpflaster is cobblestone, and old town squares are covered in Pflaster. Both meanings go back to the Latin emplastrum, something spread over a surface — whether that’s a plaster over a wound or stones over a street.

The street sense gives German a great idiom: ein teures Pflaster is “an expensive patch of ground” — München ist ein teures Pflaster — and ein heißes Pflaster is a dangerous one. So one small first-aid word quietly covers wounds, streets, and the cost of rent.