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Germany was the birthplace of psychology, and our new theme will be German "mental" words that English has adopted verbatim. Let's face it: last week's theme was week. So rather than play it out to the 7th word, we'll cut it off early and start the new theme early. This decision displays our: sprachgefühl (literally, "language-feeling") - an intuitive sense of what is linguistically appropriate - also, the character of a language quote: | ||
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quote: I thought it was water words? ![]() | |||
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Wordcrafter, you were so clever with your pun on weak! | |||
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Mrs. Byrne's Dictionary provides a word for another aspect of the "unconscious awareness" concept of yesterday's word: Anshauung – intuition; sense awareness or perception English rarely uses this term alone, but more often uses another term building upon it: weltanshauung – a comprehensive view of the world and human life; the overall perspective from which one sees and interprets the world (literally, "world-view"; AHD gives "worldview" as the meaning of the term) quote: | |||
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PS to Kalleh and arnie: Pooh! I'll respond in kind tomorrow. ![]() | |||
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A delicious word: schadenfreude – a malicious satisfaction in the misfortunes of others. from Schaden, damage + Freude, joy. often capitalized, as it is in German. quote:I know there was no Schadenfreude in the "week" comments. ![]() | |||
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quote:As if! ![]() | |||
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quote: Only from Arnie! ![]() | |||
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A cheerful word: gemütlich – warm and congenial; pleasant or friendly (noun form gemütlichkeit – warm friendliness; amicability) quote: E.Y. ("Yip") Harburg, the lyricist of the movie Wizard of Oz and of many much-loved songs, including Over the Rainbow, put a twist on this word: quote: | |||
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weltschmerz – sadness over the evils of the world; esp. as a romantic pessimism. more generally, sentimental pessimism. literally "world pain". Often capitalized Coined in German by the Romantic author Jean Paul (pseudonym of Johann Paul Friedrich Richter) in an 1827 novel, but not adopted into English until nearly 50 years later. "Weltschmerz" initially came into being as a by-product of the Romanticism movement in Europe of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The Romantic poets were a notably gloomy bunch and "Weltschmerz" aptly captures their melancholy and pessimism . quote: | |||
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What a wonderful group of words this week. They make me want to study German! | |||
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Fahrvergnügen - driving pleasure. Used by Volkswagen in an advertising campaign quote: I've not checked whether OED has accepted Fahrvergnügen. And since I don't speak german, can anyone tell me what Sprachvergnugen would mean? | |||
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quote: If it exists it would mean the pleasure of speaking. That said, it doesn't appear in my very good German Dictionary but while looking for it I came across another word that I'm sure we'll all appreciate. Sprachverderber - a corrupter of language. And a further one that I already knew (this board is a splendid example) Sprachverein - a linguistic society. Quid quid latine dictum sit, altum viditur Read all about my travels around the world here. | |||
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Sprachneuerer - a language reformer Sprachregelung - prescribed phraseology Sprachschnitzer - a grammatical blunder and Sprachshöpferisch - creative in the use of language Isn't German wonderful ? Quid quid latine dictum sit, altum viditur Read all about my travels around the world here. | |||
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quote: I just noticed that statement in the original post. I think any Austrians who came across this board would take issue with it. Surely Vienna was where Freud and Jung practised at the turn of the last century? | |||
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quote: Bob, I wholeheartedly agree, and I didn't even realize it until this thread. I am intrigued with words that Germans have where suitable words are not found in English. At least in America, I think we have neglected the German language. We push French or Spanish on our kids. Many schools don't even have German. What other German words are there??? I am definitely on a German word binge. Arnie, I fear you may be right. | |||
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quote: Well two of my favourites are Durchfall and Verstopfung, the German words for diarrhoea and constipation which translate literally as "through drop" and "blocking up". Quid quid latine dictum sit, altum viditur Read all about my travels around the world here. | |||
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And you may call yourself a sprachwissenschaftler if you consider yourself a linguist. That is, if you can pronounce it. ![]() | |||
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For this word (which seems to have been much more common in the early 1900's), the etymology tells all. katzenjammer - a hangover (also, a discordant clamor) from Katzen = cats + Jammer = distress, wailing quote: | |||
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Caterwaul sounded like it had similar origin, and my check says it comes from cater "tomcat" + waul "to yowl". AHD gives "1. cry or screech like a cat in heat. 2. make a shrill, discordant sound. 3. have a noisy argument." In searching this I found a tibit on our word "chagrin", which comes to us from the french word of the same spelling. One theory is that the french got this by translating the elements of "katzenjammer" into french: german: cats + distress = katzen + jammer in french: cat + grimace = chat + grigner = "chagrin" This type of borrowing, which translates the borrowed components into the their equivalent in the borrowing language, is called a loan translation. | |||
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Ending this theme with a worderful word: torschlusspanik (literally "shut door panic") - a sense of panic in middle age brought on by the feeling that life is passing you by quote: But the term has broad application. One finds it defined or applied as:
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Wordcrafter, what a wonderful week of words it was! ![]() | |||
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Morgan is right; this has been an amazing week. And, you definitely saved the best for last! I am enamored now with German words. I found one for which we have nothing similar in English: ohrwurm, translated "as a little animal (which is a symbol for a song) being in your ear and you aren't able to get rid of it". In other words, that song that you just can't get out of your head. | |||
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quote: "Epicaricacy" - means getting pleasure from the misfortune of others. According to my source (Novobatzky & Shea) it has been around long before "schadenfreude" and has been defined in "esteemed" dictionaries. However, it has been replaced with "schadenfreude" for no apparent reason. It has Greek roots of epi (upon) + chara (joy) + kakon (evil). | |||
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"What a glorious day," shouted Tom epicaricaciously while viewing re-runs on the Disaster Channel. | |||
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Okay, I am stumped. Why didn't this thread get locked after 60 days of not being used? ![]() | |||
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It seems that a new hit film, "Goodbye, Lenin!", has unexpectantly revived nostalgia about the Iron Curtain and the Berlin Wall. The article I read about this was that TV shows have tried to cash in on the ostalgie. The term (new?) is a play on the German words for "east", ost, and "nostalgia", or nostalgie. I love Fuller's 1845 beer...and the Cubs! | |||
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quote:A follow-up, over two years later. While casting around for words for the "bookworm" thread, I found that earworm is now being used in English for the same concept. So says Word Spy. | |||
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Originally posted by Kalleh: "Epicaricacy" - According to my source (Novobatzky & Shea) it has been defined in "esteemed" dictionaries. Mr. Shea told us here: To the best of my knowledge the word first appeared in Nathaniel Bailey's Universal Etymological English Dictionary. I think that the first edition was published in 1727 and it went through 20 or 22 subsequent editions. In 1963 Joseph T. Shipley, a respected linguist, published the same Bailey finding in his Dictionary of Early English (earlier ed. not checked):
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quote: I can't find the ick. Would that be the ich? Or maybe the ik? | |||
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Wow, we now see it cited in 5 dictionaries (I have to count the Wordcraft Dictionary!). Probably more. Jesse, it is time to bite the bullet on this word! | |||
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I am doing German words this week on Wordcraftjr, and I came across this word: "traumkeller", which apparently means "dream cellar/basement." Has anyone heard it before? I don't understand how it would be used. | |||
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Kalleh, I wouldn't place any reliability on a word used by Iain M. Banks in Feersum Endjinn; that's a wonderful literary tour de force, but it uses very obscure words, and mis-spellings, for an almost poetic effect. Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life. | |||
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i am german and i have never heard the word "traumkeller" before. | |||
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Welcome Peter! ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Do you live in Germany? We have no Germans aboard and would love to have one! As for "traumkeller," I guess it isn't a legitimate word then. Thanks! | |||
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z, I told you in today's chat that I'd finally located the photocopies of the further book in which I'd found epicaricacy. I promised to send you the details. Well, it turns out that I'd already posted it, last February, in this very thread. I'd said this: Mrs. Bryne lists this Shipley work among her sources. Perhaps that's where she found the word. I was looking at the 1963 edition of Shipley's book, but it appears to have first been published in 1955. The publisher is Littlefield, Adams & Co., of Patterson, New Jersey. | |||
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[quote] Bailey's Dictionary (1751) spells it epicharikaky; the accent falls on the ick. Oh. Okay. SWM ISO ICK. | |||
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Reviving my favorite thread... Of all the themes, I believe this is still my favorite because of the deliciously rich German words. I am reading "Harvard Business Review on the Mind of the Leader," which has wonderful essays on leaders and leadership. In a conversation with Manfred F.R. Kets de Vries (written by Diane Coutu) and entitled, Putting Leaders on the Couch, Kets de Vries talks about senior executives being frustrated because they might not be able to reach their dreams as their career ends, and he cites one of the words we talked about here: Torschlusspanik, the panic that strikes because of the closing down of possibilities. That has always been one of my favorite words. | |||
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Speaking of German words, it's only recently that I've come to realize that the family name Rothschild is German. Literally red shield or sign. The name has long been stuck in my mind as French. | |||
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Funny I always knew it as German, because the anchor dept store in the small city I was raised in was "Rothschild's"-- I knew the family, & knew they were German Jews. I guess in high school or college I learned that the famous branch were French banking magnates. Your post sparked me to google: learned that the family's Frankfurt, Germany patriarch sent one son to expand the family banking biz to France in 1812 [& other sons to other Euro capitals to do the same]. | |||
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It was this stuff that made me think it was French: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...au_Mouton_Rothschild Not that I can afford it! I wonder if they were the main target/source of the belief that there's a Jewish financial cabal that runs the world's finances? The Qanon of the last century? | |||
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Cannot tell a lie, Geoff: Chateau Lafitte Rochschild jumps into my head way before the banking dynasty ![]() | |||
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That one may go all the way back to Jesus throwing the money-changers out of the temple. I just finished a swell medieval-history-cum mystery called "Mistress of the Art of Death" by Ariana Franklin. Takes place in 12thC Cambridge, the year after Thomas a Becket was murdered. The Church forbade "usury," by which they meant ANY interest charge (or even repayment obligation!) on a loan. [Why even call it a loan ![]() | |||
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I'll give it a look. Thanks! | |||
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