What are your favorite examples of German words making it into English?

48 points · 92 comments · view on lemmy.world

92 Comments

scorpionix@feddit.de · 38 pts · 2y (2 replies)

Schadenfreude

Zeitgeist

Kindergarten

nodimetotie@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 2y (1 reply)

Haven't heard Schadenfreude, good one to know

EmoDuck@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 2y

Tanking joy in someone else's suffering

bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de · 35 pts · 2y (12 replies)

I prefer English words making it incorrectly into German. "Getting a handy from your buddy at a public viewing" is totally innocent in German.

Magnetar@feddit.de · 11 pts · 2y (5 replies)

Yeah, I brought the beamer in my body bag.

nodimetotie@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 2y (2 replies)

Beamer is a projector, right?

Magnetar@feddit.de · 4 pts · 2y (1 reply)

Yep.

nodimetotie@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 2y

It's interesting, because there is a document class for presentations in LaTeX that is called beamer

muggedTassi@feddit.de · 2 pts · 2y (1 reply)

I'm scared to ask, but what's a body bag in German? I've never heard that one used before.

ErwinLottemann@feddit.de · 2 pts · 2y

it's a Rucksack, but with an english sounding name. 🙄

nodimetotie@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 2y (5 replies)

That sounds hilarious

crispy_kilt@feddit.de · 6 pts · 2y (4 replies)

For context: Germans call mobile phones "handys"

nodimetotie@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 2y (3 replies)

Yeah, I know. I wonder why, though. It sounds English.

Enkrod@feddit.de · 10 pts · 2y (1 reply)

It's a pseudo-anglicism, like Oldtimer (antique car), Homeoffice (work from home) and Flipper (pinball machine).

Pseudo-anglicisms arise when a languages lexical composites are known in a non-native population without perfect knowledge of the actual vocabulary. All the words above are build out of perfectly fine english composites, just put together in a way that "feels" english to Germans.

There are also pseudo-germanicisms in english too by the way, the NYT had an article about "Freudenfreude" which was supposed to be a german word with the opposite meaning of Schadenfreude. But while it would be a logical german composite-word, it doesn't exist as such. "Freudenfreude" is only ever found in english literature.

mouserat@discuss.tchncs.de · 7 pts · 2y

If Freudenfreude means what I think it does there's no need for the word to exist in Germany

bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de · 2 pts · 2y

I think because they are handy to have and they fit perfectly into your hand.

Edit: Or maybe from "handset".

Krachsterben@feddit.de · 21 pts · 2y (1 reply)

My friend in Australia is a doctor studying psychiatry and he kept asking me what certain worlds meant and half the time I had no idea what they were or how to explain them lol.

Very random. Here's a wiki list but I remember there were some others too

Anwesenheit

Dermatozoenwahn

Entgleisen

Gedankenlautwerden

Mitgehen

Mitmachen

Pfropfschizophrenie

Schnauzkrampf

Wahneinfall

Verstimmung

vorbeigehen; vorbeireden

Witzelsucht

Würgstimme

Word salad/Wortsalat

Zeitraffer

Zeitlupenwahrnehmung

It's kind of interesting to see the long lasting effect of Germans pioneering the medical field for a very brief time in history.

nodimetotie@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 2y

Very cool!

admin@sh.itjust.works · 19 pts · 2y (2 replies)

I think doppelgänger is the most spread one.

nodimetotie@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 2y (1 reply)

That's a good one!

admin@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 2y

Gracias compadre!

Pancito@lemmy.world · 19 pts · 2y (6 replies)

Gesundheit

Poltergeist

Spiel

Stool ( Stuhl )

Rucksack

nodimetotie@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 2y (2 replies)

Good ones! Rucksack is interesting because it also exists as a backpack, which is literally the translation of rucksack.

CoconutKnight@feddit.de · 2 pts · 2y (1 reply)

...German even is my native language and I didn't get it :((

nodimetotie@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 2y

You're welcome)

nodimetotie@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 2y (2 replies)

I don't think I heard Gesundheit used in English much, though

theDuesentrieb@feddit.de · 1 pts · 2y (1 reply)

It is usually used as an alternative to the religiously framed "bless you" when someone sneezes

nodimetotie@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 2y

Good to know!

ook_the_librarian@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 2y (1 reply)

Gift. No wait

foobaz@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 2y

9

this_is_router@feddit.de · 16 pts · 2y (2 replies)

For the chess people: Zugzwang and Zwischenzug!

EmoDuck@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 2y

Zugzwang is self explanatory but what is Zwischenzug?

nodimetotie@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 2y

Not a chess person, never heard of them

crispy_kilt@feddit.de · 16 pts · 2y

Zeitgeist

Spiel

Schadenfreude

Kindergarten

Successful_Try543@feddit.de · 15 pts · 2y (5 replies)

Eigenvalues and eigenvectors, which however, were not discovered by the well known mathematician Eigen. Ansatz ist also commonly used in research articles.

nodimetotie@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 2y

It's funny how both the German and English stems from the whole word.

nodimetotie@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 2y (3 replies)

But surely eigenspaces were discovered by Dr. Eigen. Right?

Successful_Try543@feddit.de · 4 pts · 2y (2 replies)

And don't forget the famous Binomi brothers.

nodimetotie@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 2y (1 reply)

Who discovered the binomial distribution? Of course. Although they are probably not as famous as Prof. Normal who came up with the Normal distribution. No, wait...

Successful_Try543@feddit.de · 2 pts · 2y

They've discovered the binomial formulas too.

beeng@discuss.tchncs.de · 14 pts · 2y (5 replies)

Iceberg

nodimetotie@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 2y (4 replies)

Really?

PlexSheep@feddit.de · 7 pts · 2y (3 replies)

I mean the English usually don't call mountains Berg, right? Berg is German for mountain. Ice of course being Eis. And we like compound words.

Pancito@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 2y (1 reply)

But it's Berg in the Scandinavian languages, too.

Don_alForno@feddit.de · 7 pts · 2y

They are germanic languages after all. There are many words you'll find in German and e.g. Norwegian, especially if you overlook slight spelling differences (endings, v or f, s or z,... )

nodimetotie@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 2y

I never made the connection, thanks!

nodimetotie@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 2y (6 replies)

I guess mine would be kaput

crispy_kilt@feddit.de · 9 pts · 2y (3 replies)

Kaputt*

nodimetotie@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 2y (2 replies)

In English, it is, surprisingly, just "kaput" with a single "t"

Spzi@lemm.ee · 3 pts · 2y

Funny! So we can say "'kaput' is(t) kaputt."

crispy_kilt@feddit.de · 3 pts · 2y

Probably a mistake that got so common that it is now accepted as correct

EmoDuck@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 2y (1 reply)

That's ok, just tell us when it's working again

nodimetotie@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 2y

Nah, it's kaput for gut

Froyn@kbin.social · 12 pts · 2y (1 reply)

As an American: Hamburger

nodimetotie@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 2y

I guess Wieners and Frankfurters would also count

uebquauntbez@feddit.de · 11 pts · 2y

(German) Angst Apfelstrudel Kindergarten Oberlichte ...

beeng@discuss.tchncs.de · 11 pts · 2y (2 replies)

Meister

Gestalt

nodimetotie@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 2y

Gestalt is an awesome word

beeng@discuss.tchncs.de · 1 pts · 2y
[ removed ]
the_wise_wolf@feddit.de · 10 pts · 2y (3 replies)

Bremsstrahlung

ErwinLottemann@feddit.de · 2 pts · 2y (2 replies)

was soll das sein?

aaaaaaaaargh@feddit.de · 2 pts · 2y

Das ist, wenn du auf Toilette warst, die Spülung es aber nicht ganz schafft, dein Werk verschwinden zu lassen und stattdessen an dessen Oberfläche am Porzellan, der sogenannten "Bremsspur", kollidierendes Wasser nach oben an deinen Allerwertesten abstrahlt.

Kornblumenratte@feddit.de · 2 pts · 2y

Strahlung, die beim Abbremsen von Partikeln entsteht.

https://www.spektrum.de/lexikon/physik/bremsstrahlung/1974

dukatos@lemm.ee · 9 pts · 2y (1 reply)

Halt!

Magnetar@feddit.de · 13 pts · 2y

Hammerzeit!

greeny@feddit.de · 9 pts · 2y

Zugzwang

gandalf_der_12te@feddit.de · 9 pts · 2y (7 replies)

In mathematics:

Eigenvektor

ook_the_librarian@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 2y (2 replies)

Nonmathematical, but same root, eigengrau, aka, the patterns you see if you press on your closed eyes.

gandalf_der_12te@feddit.de · 1 pts · 2y (1 reply)

Aah, there's a word for it. I have been looking for it for ages.

ook_the_librarian@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 2y

I guess I should note that I've heard people calling the patterns eigengrau, but there doesn't seem to be anything in the wikipedia about stimulating the effect with pressure.

Apparently phosphene is the general term for seeing things that aren't photons.

Malte@feddit.de · 1 pts · 2y (3 replies)

I think the original mathematician that proposed this idea was named Mr. Eigen, so eigenvector doesn't actually refer to the german word "eigen".

hackebeilchen@feddit.de · 5 pts · 2y

If I remember right the term was introduced by Hilbert

tryptaminev@feddit.de · 4 pts · 2y (1 reply)

this is not true. The eigenvectors direction remains unchanged by the matrix representing alinear mapping. it is therefore characteristic to the matrix, hence the term "eigen".

aaaaaaaaargh@feddit.de · 1 pts · 2y
[ removed ]
ebikefolder@feddit.de · 8 pts · 2y (3 replies)

Abseiling

voodoocode@feddit.de · 4 pts · 2y

First orderly an abseiling

nodimetotie@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 2y (1 reply)

I guess I should try that sometime

EmoDuck@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 2y

"Einen abseilen" can also mean going number 2

XurXipXiZap@feddit.de · 8 pts · 2y

Doppelgänger

viking@infosec.pub · 8 pts · 2y

Abseil.

Lotec4@feddit.de · 6 pts · 2y (2 replies)

Weltschmerz

nodimetotie@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 2y

Wow, never heard of it

nodimetotie@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 2y

Now I know how to describe my feeling properly

xia@lemmy.sdf.org · 6 pts · 2y

"Ouch"

tkonicz@feddit.de · 5 pts · 2y (1 reply)
ErwinLottemann@feddit.de · 3 pts · 2y

das Nagelbrett hat mit deinem verlinkten Nagelbett aber nichts zu tun, brudi.

CoconutKnight@feddit.de · 4 pts · 2y

Does "Neuschwanstein" count? As in the castle in bavaria. Because I find it amusing how native english speakers just stumple over the pronounciation. Also "Gesamtkunstwerk" because it seems kinda superflous.

meldrik@lemmy.wtf · 3 pts · 2y (4 replies)

“Fuck”

EyIchFragDochNur@feddit.de · 6 pts · 2y

Was zum Fick

Taniwha420@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 2y (1 reply)

Why are you getting downvoted? This German word is like the #1 English word PERIOD.

meldrik@lemmy.wtf · 2 pts · 2y

Ignorance, I guess 😅

nodimetotie@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 2y

No fucking way

RootBeerGuy@discuss.tchncs.de · 2 pts · 2y

Ersatz

cashews_best_nut@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 2y

Some of these are more personal to me (a Brit).

Scheissesturm. It's not originally from Germany. It's a Germanified Anglo word.

Apparently Germans imported "shitstorm" from English. When I read about it in the newspaper I decided to re-import it into English by using the German translation.

Personally I enjoy using curse words from other languages but I especially love German curse words so I also use "scheisse", "verdammt" and "Gottverdammt".

Because Dutch sounds so funny I took one of their curses and use it for a funny pisstake insult - "kanker hoer" followed by a laugh.