Mashed language, borrowed words
I hugely enjoyed Ed West’s brilliant series of posts (here and here and here) on the English language - and the chaos and beauty that comes from its mash-up of Germanic and Romance influences.
The mixing up of two very different language families (one posh, one common) makes it hard for new learners: I am helping my son aged six to learn to read, so I feel the pain first hand.
The way English blends the speech of northern and southern Europe has helped give us a language with a dozen ways to get to the “sh” sound (shoe, sugar, tissue, mission, nation, ocean, machine, conscious, anxious, and special). Or, going the other way, a language where “-ough” has eight or nine different pronunciations1.
I am a terrible monoglot but, maybe perversely for that reason, I am a big fan of idioms and borrowed words from other languages. I guess it is nice to see the world from a different angle sometimes.
I also love the randomness of the way words and ideas move between languages.
Sometimes we import wholesale as loanwords - for example, from German we take: Schadenfreude, kindergarten, rucksack, abseil, kitsch, über, schlep and schmaltz2.
Other times we make a calque and translate the components of a foreign word (and often we then forget we did this). From German again we take:
earworm from Ohrwurm (ear + worm)
superman from Übermensch
worldview from Weltanschauung
thought experiment from Gedankenexperiment and
swan song — from Schwanengesang3
I love the fact that "calque" is a loanword (from French calquer, to trace), while "loanword" is a calque (of Lehnwort). The snake has eaten its own tail!
In search of more idioms
Most of all, I love idioms from other places. A friend from overseas once described someone who was being driven nuts as “climbing the mirrors”, which I like a lot.
Recently I was quizzing a German-speaking friend for more German idioms. In exactly the same way that the Eskimos have many words for snow, the Germans seem to have a particular fondness for sausage-based idioms.
The idea of “Salami-slicing” tactics has already crossed over into English of course, but some sausage-based idioms which were new to me, which I particularly like, include:
"Das ist mir Wurst"
Literal: That is to me sausage - Meaning: that doesn’t matter / I don’t care. (Apparently, this is common enough that you can just say “Wurst” for short.)
“Eine Extrawurst verlangen”
Literal: Demand an extra sausage - Meaning: Demand special treatment
“Die beleidigte Leberwurst spielen”
Literal: play the offended liver sausage - Meaning: be in a huff, to act offended and wounded. (Liver sausage is not very popular)
“Seinen Senf dazugeben”
Literal: Add his mustard to it - Meaning: Give your two cents worth.
“Alles hat un ende, nur die wurst hat zwei”
Literal: Everything has an end, only a sausage has two - Meaning: all good things come to an end (but softened and made a bit surreal)
Our German cousins also seem to like other culinary idioms too - “you are getting on my biscuits” is quite a nice way to say someone is annoying, and someone with “tomatoes on their eyes” is definitely being a bit blind.
Naming the nameless thing
German seems particularly rich in single words for things and concepts that are slightly nameless. Schadenfreude, Zeitgeist, Ohrwurm and Weltschmerz have already been absorbed by the giant dirty snowball that is English. But the Germans have plenty more where that came from:
Verschlimmbesserung: an improvement that actually makes things worse
Fremdschämen: the cringe you feel on someone else’s behalf when they embarrass themselves.
Kummerspeck: “grief bacon”, the weight you put on from comfort-eating through emotional distress.
Torschlusspanik: “gate-shut panic”, anxiety, often about life milestones, that time is running out and the doors are closing.
Sitzfleisch: “sitting-flesh”, the ability to endure or persevere at something tedious through sheer stamina of the backside; staying power.
Kopfkino: “head cinema”, the involuntary film your imagination screens for you, usually anxious or embarrassing scenarios playing on a loop.
Schnapsidee: “schnapps idea”, a ridiculous, harebrained plan that could only sound good to someone who’d been drinking.
Drachenfutter: “dragon fodder”, a peace-offering gift (flowers, chocolates) brought home to placate a partner you’ve annoyed.
The long compound words help for sure, but there is something about the soul of German that seems to make it a natural fit for offbeat concepts - particularly those that that combine, well, Schadenfreude and Weltschmerz.
The words above are all real and in use in German. But I feel we need more.
More German word suggestions from a non-German-speaker
With that in mind I would like to suggest, as a non-German speaker, that we need more German compound words to describe some currently nameless concepts.
I dunno if there is some academy in Bonn I can apply to, but, without further ado, I would like to request some new German words for the following concepts (my bad suggestions in German)
1. Feeling fresh, then doing something stupid that reveals you’re actually exhausted:
der Scheinwachpatzer — “seemingly-awake blunder”
2. The large book you’d like to have read, but know you won’t read if you buy it:
der Wunschwälzer — “wish-tome”
3. An invention that could have happened far earlier (example: wheeled suitcases)
die Späterfindung — “late-invention”
4. The jolt of expecting a stair that isn’t there
der Phantomtritt — “phantom step”
5. The unbalanced lurch of stepping onto a stopped escalator or travelator
der Stillstandstaumel — “standstill stagger”
6. Too tired to stop scrolling, but too tired to go to bed
die Scrollstarre — “scroll-torpor / scroll-rigidity”
7. Holding a door for someone just far enough away to force an awkward half-jog
der Höflichkeitstrab — “courtesy trot”
8. The word or fact, learned yesterday, that now appears everywhere
das Überallwort — “everywhere-word”
9. Reflexively (but wrongly) saying “you too” (when the waiter says “have a good meal”, or the check in guy says “have a good trip”)
der Gleichfallsreflex — “likewise-reflex”
10. The name or word or memory that is utterly impossible to recall, but returns at 3am - or effortlessly two conversations later
der Mitternachtseinfall — “midnight brainwave”
Um…
That’s probably enough new words and sausage-based idioms for now. But if you have more real idioms or suggestions, please put them in the comments below. I do love them.
After all, Alles hat un ende, nur die wurst hat zwei.
though (rhymes with “go”)
through (”oo”)
tough (”uff”)
cough (”off”)
bough (”ow”)
thought (”aw”)
thorough (”uh,”)
hiccough (”up”)
lough (”och,”)
Schmaltz itself previously imported to German from Yiddish. So it goes on and on.
Though I think the Germans were themselves borrowing from the Greek?
A very enjoyable read. My favourite German word is ‘bummerlei’ which translates loosely as ‘aimless noodling’