January
2006 Archives
Eponyms from World War II: Lord Haw Haw (Spenglerian); Maginot line; Luger (jackboot);
Toyko Rose; K-ration (climactic);
Garand (Browning machine gun); Rosie the Riveter
Lazy People: layabout; chairwarmer; dabster (dab); faineant; fainéant
(faineant deity); sluggard; goldbrick; lollygagger
Antedating the OED: majorette; drum majorette; manhandling; mail slot;
man-hating (misogyny, misandry); mass market; mass of maneuver; mass producer
Waters of the World: lacustrine; littoral
(viticulture); riparian (riverine, riprap, gabion); pelagic (cetacean);
palustrine (paludal); neritic (sublittoral, bathyal, abysmal, hadal,
continental slope, benthic/benthonic, bathypelagic); estuarial (kelt, limnology,
oceanography, oceanology)
"Untranslatable" Words from
German: Korinthenkacker;
Feierabend; fisselig; Drachenfutter (propitiate); Radfahrer; Schlimmbesserung
(marmoreal); Papierkrieg
Eponyms from World War II
For this week I toyed with a variety of military
themes, such as "Eponyms of Traitors" or "Military
Eponyms". But let's face the challenge of coming up with words for a more
limited theme, "Eponyms from WWII".
Lord Haw Haw – a traitor, particularly one who makes propaganda for the
enemy
[The nickname given to William Joyce, American born but raised in Ireland. In
WWII, Joyce was the Nazis' voice on English-language radio broadcasts of
propaganda. "Haw Haw" is a reference to the upper-class British
accent.]
Instead there was
constant, heavy-handed propaganda … – a Spenglerian radio lecture
on the decadence of liberalism and the decline of the West, delivered by a Lord
Haw Haw figure with a whining voice …
– Allister Sparks, Beyond the Miracle: Inside the New South Africa
Bonus word:
Spenglerian – relating to the views of Oswald Spengler,
who held that all major cultures undergo similar cycles from birth to maturity
to decay
Maginot line – an impressive, expensive but static defense which is
ultimately useless against an agile attack. (see quotes; some use the term as a
cultural references rather than as a word)
[After WWI, French minister André Maginot devised a line of fortresses along
France's east border. The line was fine strategy for a repeat of WWI – but the
WWII Germans simply went around it.]
The current Ofcom
and BBC rules on product placement are a sort of Maginot line,
say many in the industry: they look very formidable in theory but in practice
there are many ways round them.
– Alex Benady, The Independent (London), Dec 12, 2005
… no government bureaucracy is ever going to be the kind of well-oiled machine
that can reliably and effectively prevent domestic terrorist threats. …
Instead, what we have is a kind of antiterror version of France's pre-World War
II Maginot Line; an expensive, highly visible static
defense against a nimble adversary.
– Wall Street Journal, The Maginot Department: Homeland security is
about more than playing defense, December 31, 2005
Culturally, America's clout is so overwhelming that its oldest ally, France, is
once more building Maginot lines – this time … against American
movies and even words.
- Josef Joffe, New York Times Magazine, June 8, 1997
Don't mistake today's word for luger,
an athlete in the sport of luge.
Luger – semiautomatic pistol widely used by Germans in WWII (though
introduced earlier). Some consider it to be the finest pistol ever produced.
[After Georg Luger, Ger. firearms expert]
Hordes of
brutal-looking, jack-booted police, with loaded Lugers
strapped to their hips, moved in with "huge, muzzled dogs at their
heels," trying to move the crowd back.
– Bob Spitz The Beatles: The Biography
Bonus word:
jackboot – a person who uses bullying tactics,
especially to force compliance. (orig. and also, a stout military boot that
extends above the knee)
Toyko Rose – usually
refers to the person, but occasionally used to mean one broadcasting negative
propagand to military troops
[After the name "Tokyo Rose", given by WWII US troops in the Pacific
to several radio female broadcasters of Japanese propaganda.]
In the Christmas
tradition of the Andrews Sisters wowing World War II GIs, comedian Al Franken
is headlining USO shows at military bases in Iraq this week. Other current
regulars include rock musician Henry Rollins [, who] said he generally keeps
his anti-war views to himself at USO shows. "You don't need me out there
like some Toyko Rose. I wouldn't go on a tear on Bush out there,
because it'd be distracting."
– USA Today, Dec. 22, 2005
[Chris] Wallace … had even harsher words for Democratic National Committee
Chairman Howard Dean, calling him a "Toyko Rose" for
suggesting that the war in Iraq is unwinnable.
– Contra Costa Times, Dec. 14, 2005
K-ration – a field
ration for U.S. armed forces in World War II, consisting of a single packaged
meal
[After Ancel Benjamin Keys (1904-2004), American physiologist]
[After D-day:] As
soon as the battle began, however, the advantage would shift to the Germans.
Once in France, the Allied … troops would be relatively immobile. Until …
self-propelled artillery and trucks [could] come ashore, movement would be by
legs rather than half-tracks or tires. The Germans, meanwhile, could move … by
road and rail.… all reinforcements, plus every bullet, every bandage, every K
ration, would have to cross the English Channel to get into the
battle. So the Allies really had two problems – getting ashore, and winning the
battle of the buildup.
– Stephen E. Ambrose, D Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of
World War II
Bonus word:
climactic – adjective form of 'climax'
Garand – a
semi-automatic rifle (better known as the M-1) used by U.S. forces during WWII
and the Korean War. [Accent on either syllable]
[After John Cantius Garand (1888–1974), Canadian-born American inventor]
… the American M-1
Garand was the best all-purpose military rifle in the world.
Overall, however, Americans in Normandy gladly would have traded weapons with
the Germans. Especially the tankers. There was a barely suppressed fury … about
the inferiority of the Sherman tank.
– Stephen E. Ambrose, Citizen Soldiers [etc]
Another eponymous weapon is the Browning
machine gun – a belt-fed machine gun fired over 500 rounds per minute, used
by U.S. troops in World War II and the Korean War. It is named after John Moses
Browning (1855–1926), American firearms inventor.
Rosie the Riveter – U.S.: a
woman industrial worker during WWII
A picture is worth a thousand words. The picture of Rosie,
as the mythical poster girl in a campaign to boost war production, shows her
character and spirit. Her name is usually used in reference to her, and you
won't find it in the dictionaries, but sometimes you will see it as a word. For
example:
My father was a
foreman in a factory that made bomb-casings. My mother was a Rosie the
Riveter.
– Stephen King, It
Grandma worked in the Portland shipyards during the war as one of thousands of Rosie
the Riveters.
– Christina Baldwin, Storycatcher
Lazy
People
The vocabulary of insult is huge. Let's
spend some time looking at terms for not-so-admirable people in our world,
specifically the lazy ones.
layabout – a person
who habitually does little or no work
The point
is," he said, "that people like you and me, Slartibartfast, and
Arthur-particularly and especially Arthur-are just dilettantes, eccentrics, layabouts
if you like."
– Douglas Adams, The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Today's word has several interesting, useful
meanings, and a hearer will immediately understand it from context. Thus,
though it is rare, it merits wider use. Few dictionaries define it, and they
define it poorly.
chairwarmer –
1. an interim officeholder "keeping the chair warm" until the
proper successor takes office
When he [Goh Chok
Tong] was named Prime Minister in November 1990, the PAP politician was only
49--and widely dismissed as a chairwarmer for Lee Kuan Yew's
older son, Lee Hsien Loong, then 38.¹
2. one who, with
only office experience (in his chair), meddles in practical matters
Some chairwarmer
in [the Office] cooks up a crack-pot notion of how things ought to be done.
Maybe he was never in the plant but he don't let that bother him.²
3. one who lounges
long in a hotel lobby, etc.
He had heard
loungers about hotels called chairwarmers. He had called
them that himself in his day.³
¹Terry McCarthy
and Eric Ellis, Time Magazine, July 19, 1999
²Melville Dalton, Men who Manage, quoting a worker, in Sociology of
Economic Life (Mark Granovetter, Richard Swedburg, ed.) (brackets in text
cited)
³Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie
Today's word dabster has switched
meanings. A dab, is one skilled in something, an expert, an adept. Dabster
originally meant the same.
In contrast, to daub is to smear on; in painting it means to lay on
colors clumsily, and thus a daubster is a clumsy painter.
Dabster was a positive word, but it sounds much like both dabbler
and daubster. Perhaps that is why dabster acquired those negative
meanings. They now seem to be the more common meanings.
dabster – 1. a person skilled at something. 2. a dabbler; or,
a clumsy, inept painter
"No? Really,
can you paint?"
"Not as badly as they. No, I don't claim that, for I am not a genius; in
fact, I am a very indifferent amateur, a slouchy dabster,
a mere artistic sarcasm; but drunk or asleep I can beat those buccaneers."
– Mark Twain, The American Claimant, Ch. XVII
faineant; fainéant – noun: an irresponsible idler; a do-nothing
adj.: idle and ineffectual.
(fainéance; fainéancy)
[From French fait + néant, does + nothing]
Here's a tidbit that may aid your recall. The French king from 967-987, the
last Carolingian, was Louis le fainéant. Interestingly, England's king
then was Ethelred the Unready. ('Unready' doesn't mean unprepared. It is from
the Old English word meaning 'indecisive'.)
Muslim historians
claimed that Chingiz Khan communicated with devils in trances. … The Muslim
princes opposing the Mongols were by contrast judged as ditherers and faineants.
– Robert Irwin, in The Cambridge Illustrated History of the Islamic World
(Francis Robinson, ed.)
… the negative, fainéant outlook which has been fashionable among
English left-wingers, the sniggering of the intellectuals at patriotism and
physical courage, the persistent effort to chip away English morale and spread
a hedonistic, what-do-I-get-out-of-it attitude to life, has done nothing but
harm.
– George Orwell, Homage to Catalonia, part I
Dictionary sources add that a god who does
not act in human affairs, and hence is not worshiped, is called a faineant
deity.
Your industrious wordcrafter has now found a
seventh term for "idler," suitable to present here. Let's continue
through those terms.
sluggard – a lazy, sluggish person
'Tis the voice of
the sluggard; I heard him complain,
"You have waked me too soon, I must slumber again."
– Isaac Watts, The Sluggard
goldbrick – a
shirker: someone, esp. a soldier, who avoids assigned duties (also,
something that appears valuable but is actually worthless)
As one newspaper puts it, "A goldbrick is a soldier who is
allergic to work."
The term can also be pressed into use as a verb, and it shades into the notion
of playing hooky, spending some office time on personal calls, taking a bit of
time off.
"I think a
certain amount of goldbricking is necessary to preserve your
sanity," says Henry McCarl, professor of economics … "I think anyone
who says they don't goldbrick is kidding themselves."
– Cristina Rouvalis, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 20, 1999.
lollygagger – one who dawdles or putters around (verb: to lollygag)
The life of a
traveler can be rough. But being a tourist is another matter. As tourists we
were free to sleep late, eat out, and keep no schedule at all. We became lollygaggers
at large. It was not a difficult transition.
– Marilyn J. Abraham, First We Quit Our Jobs
Antedating
the OED
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is a
remarkable feat of scholarship. The 20-volume second edition, dated 1989,
contains 291,500 entries (contrast about 107,000 for Merriam Webster on-line,
and 89,000 for American Heritage), with almost 2½ million quotations to
illustrate them.
But the OED is a work of 19th- and early-20th-century scholarship, one that OED
must constantly update as the language grows – and as our ability to research
it grows. OED editors give the earliest citations they know of, but they of
course could not check every single published work. Today, however, search
technology provides a new way to look for earlier citations, for antedates. It is
perhaps impossible for OED to keep fully up-to-date, and thus some antedates
have been found but not yet published, while other antedates remained
undiscovered.
My point in this theme goes beyond the individual words. The OED,
though wonderful, is far from perfect its citations. It is easy to say that, but far more convincing to demonstrate
it with several examples. To illustrate, this week we present words with
citations that antedate OED's earliest. OED has been revising its entries,
proceeding gradually through the alphabet, and we will concentrate on a portion
which OED revised as recently as 2000.
majorette or drum majorette – a girl or woman who leads a
marching band or accompanies it as a baton twirler
[Note: sources differ as to whether each term includes the leader, the twirler,
or the band-member playing an instrument.]
1923 cite [photo caption and subcaption]: ONLY DRUM MAJORETTE
Or would you call her a drum majoress? She's Mrs. C. W. Williams, who led the Elks
band of Albuquerque, N.M. at the recent Elk's convention at Atlanta, Ga. Men in
the band say she's the only woman drum major in the world.
– Reno Evening Gazette July 23, p.2 col. 3-4:
OED's first cite, 1938: Drum majorettes are latest in ballyhoo.
– Life 10 Oct. 3/1 (heading)
manhandling (noun) – rough handling
1908 cite: The fight went about a half a round …. When the smoke cleared
away Dick was covered with blood as the result of his manhandling
…
– The Fort Wayne (Indiana) News, April 24, 1908, p.8 col. 5
OED's first cite, 1916: I feel we must treat the gifted Athenian stranger to a
little manhandling.
– A. T. Quiller-Couch, Art of Writing I. 17
mail slot – a slot or
slit in a door (occasionally in a wall), through which mail can be delivered
Here OED can be antedated very substantially. Also, OED define mail slot
as "letter box", but it should be noted that that does not imply a
box or any other sort of closed container. Rather, mail pushed through the slot
simply falls to the floor, accessible to all on that side of the door. Our
first quote illustrates dire consequences of that access.
1910 cite: Some Fiend Places Poison in a Residence Through the Mail
Slot and Kills a Pet Dog.
– Headline of The Indiana Democrat, March 30, 1910 p.1
1892 cite:… two horizontals slits in the door plate, above and below the
mail slot.
– Olean Weekly Democrat, Dec. 20, 1892, p13 col 1
OED's first cite: 1955 E. A. Powell Adventure Road iii. 20 The
postman dropped into the mail slot of my door a letter bearing
the imprint of the Badminton Magazine.
man-hating – hatred of
the male sex; misandry
From the quote dates, it seems that such things run in cycles.
1892 cite: But we believe that this man-hating craze is a
passing phase of the time …
– Reno (Nevada) Evening Gazette, Sept. 15, 1892, 1/3
1922 cite: If the cult of man-hating goes on increasing
until it gains ascendancy, even were it possible to propagate the race without
the assistance of the male, the end of the world would be assured.
– The Coshocton (Ohio) Tribune, Apr. 20, 1922, 7/3
OED's cites:
1965 Shakespeare Q. 16 333 As for the principals, they were
in their fancy get-ups, showing no evidence that Spanish temperament had any
connection with Petruchio's heiress-hunting or Kate's man-hating.
1991 Vanity Fair (N.Y.) Sept. 301/1 [Feminism] began to go off
the rails into man-hating and victim-mongering.
Bonus words and side note:
Misogyny is a fairly well-known word for "hatred of women".
The counterpart for "hatred of men" is misandry, but is much
less familiar, and has only 1/17th as many google hits. I am not brave enough
to speculate on why there should be such a difference.
mass market – the market for goods produced in large quantities for the
broad population
1927 cite: [advert.] Fur retailers have accomplished much in developing a
style appeal – the comfort – the economy of fur garments and by modern sales
methods have changed a class market into a mass market.
– Syracuse Herald, Oct. 14, 1927 36/1-2
OED's earliest cite:
1933 Jrnl. Polit. Econ. 41 708: The most important bearing of
population growth on industry is that it furnishes a mass market
for products.
mass of maneuver – something held in reserve, to be used when and where the
appropriate becomes clear
A rarely used phrase, used chiefly in military parlance, but available for
metaphorical use.
We'll skip the earliest cite found (1918), and OED's earliest (1919), and
instead give a Churchill passage that wonderfully explains the concept and its
importance. The French General has just detailed the disasterous state of the
battlefield.
… there was a
considerable silence. I then asked: "Where is the strategic reserve?"
and, breaking into French, … "Où est la masse de manoeuvre?"
General Gamelin turned to me and, with a shake of the head and a shrug, said:
"Aucune.." [none]
.
. . no strategic reserve. "Aucune." I was dumbfounded. … It had never
occurred to me that any commanders having to defend five hundred miles of
engaged front would have left themselves unprovided with a mass of
manoeuvre. No one can defend with certainty so wide a front; but
when the enemy … breaks the line, one can always have, one must have, a mass of
divisions which marches up in vehement counter-attack.
– Winston Churchill, Their Finest Hour, pp. 46-47
mass producer – a manufacture producing in large quantities, typically by
automated process
Our quote today, referring to Henry Ford's virulent anti-semitism, illustrates
both the literal and extended meanings of the term.
1927 cite: He is not only the greatest mass-producer of
automobiles, but the greatest mass-producer of hate.
– Congressman Sol Bloom, quoted in Syracuse Herald 7 Feb 22/1
OED's earliest cite:
1929 A. HUXLEY, Do what you Will 90 The mass-producers
will do their best to make everybody more and more prosperous.
Waters of the World
This week we'll survey terms that refer to
the various waters of the world. We'll of course pass over the many familiar
terms, such as sea, lake, river, bay, inlet, etc. The less familiar
terms are sometimes technical ones and sometimes literary ones, but all are
available for your use.
lacustrine – relating to lakes
When he first laid
eyes on Tenochtitlán [Mexico City] in the early 16th century, Spanish
conquistador Hernán Cortés was dazzled by the glistening lacustrine
metropolis, which reminded him of Venice.
– Fodor's Mexico 2006
littoral – relating
to the shore of non-flowing waters such as lakes, oceans, etc. [in more
specific use, relating to the area which, as tides rise and fall, is sometimes
underwater and sometimes exposed.] Also used as a noun.
"Littoral" can be used literally, but the figurative use (last quote)
is interesting too.
Sanibel and
Captiva are part of the hundred littoral islands basking in the
sun off the west coast of Florida in the Gulf of Mexico.
– Patricia Schultz, 1,000 Places to See Before You Die
These viticultural regions all lie within the littoral
Mediterranean climate zone of Algeria with its mild winters and hot, dry, and
sunny summers.
– Jancis Robinson The Oxford Companion to Wine
Newt, who hadn't spent years on the littoral of business without
picking up a thing or two.
– Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, Good Omens
Bonus word:
viticulture – grape-growing [Latin vitis 'vine']
Littoral refers to
the shores of non-flowing waters. What of flowing waters?
riparian – relating to riverbanks (although often mis-used to include littoral)
riverine – relating to riverbanks
The proposed
partnership is a win-win solution for the city to create and manage a riparian
green space along the Rappahannock and Rapidan riverbanks
– Kurt A. Baden, The Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg, Virginia), Jan. 23, 2006
Second-home sales have boomed so much that in many popular rustric retreats …
vacation homes by the thousands line the desirable riparian
acreage, with land parcels growing scarce.
– Gregg Easterbrook, The Progress Paradox: How Life Gets Better While People
Feel Worse
Bonus words:
riprap – (illustration)
loose stone used to stabilize a riverbank, or for like purposes
If riprap is enclosed in a mesh cage, for modular use, it is called gabion
(illustration), and can also be used for dry purposes, such
as retaining walls (illustation). This use of "gabion" has not yet
entered the dictionaries.
Our words leave the shore and go out to sea.
We tell the tale of the whale in the Thames, the pelagic cetacean who moved
from sea to river and attracted riverine attention.
pelagic – relating to open ocean
Bonus word: cetacean – pertaining to whales
Prince of whales: London's pride is to be a haven for immigrants and
asylum-seekers
Our visitor played its part as if to the cetacean drama of Moby Dick
born. It dived, spouted and flipped its tail. The Water Board was prompt to
boast that its Thames was now clean enough to attract even great pelagic
creatures from the wild waters. And Londoners did not reach for their harpoons
or sushi or fishy fingers. They showed the nobler London sentiment of kindness
to strangers.
– Philip Howard, Wall Street Journal, Jan. 25, 2006, expanding item in London
Times four days earlier. I combine excerpts from both versions.
Can you imagine Londoners "reaching for
their harpoons," which they doubtless had handy?
Two obscure ones today.
palustrine – relating to swamps and marshes
paludal – 1. relating to swamps and marshes; palustrine. 2.
malarial
Each from Latin palus marsh.
Indeed one reads of
some old poets who were not able to produce a mere hundred lines in a day.
Under the "free-verse" system, some of the Palustrine
(or Marshy) School have been known to produce as many as three thousand lines
in a day …
– Punch, November 7, 1917
And they had good reason to fear that in warm weather the atmosphere might be
charged with dangerous miasma, of the kind that engenders paludal
fevers.
– Jules Verne, The Mysterious Island (Jordan Stump, translator)
Various terms measure ocean depths. Sources
conflict, and sometimes a source even contradicts itself (example here: 3,000 or 4,000?), but I've tried to put it together.
neritic or sublittoral – of ocean depths to about 200 meters.
[probably named for a son of Nereus, hence an eponym.]
bathyal – of ocean depths below neritic, to 4,000 meters.
abysmal – of ocean depths below bathyal. (Some will instead call the
deepest part of this, below 6,000 meters, hadal as in
"Hades".)
Neritic depths are chiefly influenced by tides and waves, bathyal depths by
currents
Extras:
continental slope – the seabed where it gradually descends from
continental shore. (A steeper descent typically begins at 200 meters depth.
Compare "neritic".)
benthic; benthonic – of the deepest part (however deep it may be) of an
ocean or lake
Some sources list bathypelagic as "relating to a depth of about 600
to 3,000 meters".
estuarial – relating
to an estuary, the area near the mouth of a river where river flow mixes
with tidal flow, fresh water with salt water
Bonus word: kelt – (per OED) a salmon, etc. in bad condition after
spawning, before returning to the sea
Salmo salar, the
Atlantic salmon, having gone to sea, returns to the river of its birth to
spawn. On the way it may fall prey to estuarial nets. Once in the
river it may have to leap up and over waterfalls ('salar' means the leaper) …
until, having spawned, it dies in the river or returns to the sea. In this
final phase of its life it is known as a kelt.
– Simon Courtauld, The Spectator, June 18, 2005 (ellipses omitted)
Question for our
readers: In preparing this theme I learned that limnology is the study
of bodies of fresh water, including their biology and geology. But I
could not find no such -ology word for that study of bodies of salt
water. (For example, "marine biology" is limited to biology and is
not a single word.) Can anyone provide the term?
Follow-up: We'd noted
that limnology is the scientific study of bodies of fresh water, and
we'd asked for a like term for salt-water bodies. Thanks to readers' input, I
can now tell you that according to OED on-line, oceanography has that
meaning. The word oceanology used to have that meaning too, but now is
more used to mean "the branch of technology and economics concerned with
human use of the ocean."
"Untranslatable" Words
from German
I commend to you Howard Rheingold's book, They
Have a Word for It (1988), which is not just another word-book. Rheingold
focuses on
"untranslatable words" that don't exist in English but would add a new dimension to our lives if we were somehow to import them from their original languages. Words that would open a window on the way other cultures encourage people to think and feel, and thus point out new ways for us to think and feel.
This week I'll borrow from Rheingold,
trusting that he would view it not as plagiarism but as publicity. Rheingold's
words come from all over the world, but those from non-western cultures often
require an explanation of cultural context a bit longer than we'd like here.
Also, we've already enjoyed several such words from German:
schadenfreude; gemütlich; katzenjammer; torschlusspanik. This week we'll look
at more German words, from Rheingold. And if we happen to select those that
bring a smile, who would complain?
Korinthenkacker (core-IN-ten-COCK-er) – a person overly concerned with
trivial details
[Literally, "raisin-sh*tter"]
The Korinthenkacker is the guy whose desk has every item perfectly in
place, neatly aligned. The Korinthenkacker is the guy who insists on figuring
the precise to-the-penny amount (plus tax) owed by each of six people who have
dined together at a restaurant. The Korinthenkacker, says Rheingold, is
"anyone who couldn't find a forest because he or she is too busy applying
a magnifying glass to an inspection of the bark of one tree."
Feierabend – festive
frame of mind at the end of the working day
Literally, "celebration evening". The euphoric feeling of work is
over and it's time to relax, enjoy a beer at the pub, or put your feet up
before the fire with your newspaper and slippers.
To me – and this is personal only – Feierabend differs in two senses
from "Thank God It's Friday". The latter applies only one day a week,
and more importantly, has the sense of relief from the "bad hours"
rather than relish of the "good hours".
Perhaps this old pop-song by The Vogues conveys the feeling, especially in with
last line?
Up every morning just to keep a job
I gotta fight my way through the hustling mob.
Sounds of the city pounding in my brain
While another day goes down the drain.
But it's a five o'clock world when the whistle blows
No one owns a piece of my time
And there's a five o'clock me inside my clothes
Thinking that the world looks fine.
fisselig – flustered
into incompetence because a critical person is watching
I think of a state of incompetent "stage fright", whether in the
theater itself or under the eye of a critical boss or professor.
Rheingold says, "flustered to the point of incompetence," but then
adds that flustered or jittery" are inexact because
"neither … puts any blame on the unwanted supervisorial attention that
brings on this nervousness and disintegration of composure." I have tried
to put this together into a brief definition. Any correction or confirmation is
appreciated.
Anyone who has been married will understand
today's word.
Drachenfutter – peace offering to one's wife (chocolate, flowers, etc.)
when one has behaved badly: a late night of poker with the boys, etc.
Literally (oh, this is lovely!) "dragon fodder". An attempt to
propitiate the goddess in her wrath.
Such gifts were so customary and common that the Germans coined a word for
them. Rheingold reports, "At one point it was common in Germany to see men
drinking in bars of cafés on Saturday afternoons with their Drachenfutter
already bought and wrapped in anticipation of the night ahead."
Bonus word:
propitiate – to appease; to gain or regain the favor of
Radfahrer – colloquial:
one who flatters superiors and brow-beats subordinates
This sort of two-faced person has been given a name that literally means
"cyclist": after toadying to his bosses, he turns around and abuses
subordinates. This despicable type is distinct from the sycophant, who merely
toadies.
Come to think of it, does English have a word for the boss who terrorizes those
who work for him? 'Martinet' comes to mind, but it means a strict
disciplinarian, a stickler for the rules. It does not necessarily imply terror.
Conversely, I would think that part of the terror of a Radfahrer is
that, without clear standards, one never knows what may set him off.
Schlimmbesserung – a so-called improvement that makes things worse
Surely readers can provide examples, and I'm providing a thread here to share them. Rheingold's example is the bus-only
lanes on a highway: lanes that are empty most of the time, while the entire
traffic load must cram into the lanes remaining.
And who'd have expected a purple-prose example in the world of body-building?
Johnnie O.
resurrected the hallowed precepts of bodybuilding from the rubble of antiquity
and proudly poised himself at that Archimedean point from which he can lift the
whole world of our sport. … his physique evokes the structure of bodybuilding's
frontiersmen: marmoreal monsters who were as thick and deep as they were
wide … Now, among a generation seduced by the schlimmbesserung of
progress, Johnnie O. Jackson stands as a superhero.
– Julian Schmidt, Flex [Magazine], April, 2002
Bonus word:
marmoreal – like marble (emphasizing either
smoothness or hardness)
Papierkrieg – obsessively complicated paperwork, seemingly (or actually)
designed to make you give up in frustration
Can anyone comment on how this is related to Bürokratismus?
Rheingold defines Papierkrieg as "complicated paperwork connected with
making a complaint" that, unlike 'red tape', is a obstacle created
deliberately to derail you. However, this web-example shows that Papierkrieg is
not be limited to "complaint" forms.
Years ago outside
Freiburg I had an offer of employment, but had to be locally registered to be
employed. Registration required a certificate from the police, which required a
residence permit, which in turn required evidence of employment. I don't recall
how I finally got out of it, but when I took all the necessary documents to the
town office to be registered, the clerk muttered "Ach, Papierkrieg,"
threw them all away, and registered me without further ado.