And the German winner for "Anglicism of the Year" goes to....

[kwbMitel]

http://www.thelocal.de/society/20120213-40703.html

I was surprised by this. I've always admired the German language for its unique words that cover broad concepts.

Who would've thought they needed to add one like this?

**********************************************
What's most important is that you realise ... There is no spoon.

 

[SantaMufasa]

I've always admired the German language for its unique words that cover broad concepts.

I agree: words like "schöne Frau", "wohlgeformten Körper", "knappen Badeanzug". <grin and just kidding>


Send any critical responses to kwbMitel for posting this thread and getting me started in the first place. <another grin>

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
“People may forget what you say, but they will never forget how you made them feel.

 

[FredWagner]

This is probably their revenge for 'farfegnugen' that (I think) an American ad agency coined to sound 'german'. I hope it was more polite in German than their recent selection is in English !
...a bit of Google research turns up that it was an Anglicization of their word meaning 'driving pleasure'....
for the opposite, has anyone ever driven one of the old 2-cycle Trabants ?

Fred Wagner

 

[kwbMitel]

Thanks Santa - I had to look up the meanings to get the "joke".

"schöne Frau" = "pulchritudinous broad"

As I'm sure you know I was going more for words like:

schadenfreude or treppenwitz

**********************************************
What's most important is that you realise ... There is no spoon.

 

[SantaMufasa]

Yes, you caught my drift about "broad humor".

But I'm coming up empty on "schadenfreude" (harm glee?) and "treppenwitz" (staircase humor?). You'll have to throw me a clue here.

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
“People may forget what you say, but they will never forget how you made them feel.

 

[kwbMitel]

schadenfreude - Taking pleasure from someone else's misfortune

treppenwitz - Wit of the staircase - That great bon-mot that you think of only after the opportunity passes (While in the staircase for e.g.)

With examples like that, I surprised they needed s..tstorm

**********************************************
What's most important is that you realise ... There is no spoon.

 

[Turkbear]

My favorite ( sort of) is:

Büstenhalter


Which I think translates when split to

Bust Owner

Instead of the English term Bra ( from Brassiere, in French soutien-gorge or Throat-Support)
Language is a odd duck, is it not?



To Paraphrase:"The Help you get is proportional to the Help you give.."

 

[BadBigBen]

Turkbear,

"Halter" also means holder... so even if split, it means "bust holder"... which it does...

Santa,

I hope there is no "doppelganger" of you around, because then you'd have me in double stitches, most of the time... he he...

kwbMitel,

though a bit funny, most of those words, that are voted on, no one will remember them in 5 yrs or so...

btw. you would be hard to find a German today, that would know the meaning of the word "Treppenwitz", which btw. is a loan-tramslation of the french "esprit d’escalier"...


and should any one be caught with their "Ledehosen" down, don't despair there is always "Ersatz"...


Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[kwbMitel]

@ BigBadBen

My first encounter with the "Wit of the Staircase" was with the German term. This led me to interpret that it was common use regardless of its derivation. Thanks for the correction.

**********************************************
What's most important is that you realise ... There is no spoon.

 

[BadBigBen]

kwbMitel,

no correction there, just an addendum, ergo just extraneous (M-W, def 2a) information... ;-)

perhaps, the older generations (mine and older) probably do know the term, but the younger generations would have to look it up on iNet or in the "Duden"...

btw. spelling correction to my earlier post, the "Ledehosen" should have been "Lederhosen"... ;-)



Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[mscallisto]

@ BigBadBen

And all this while I thought Büstenhalter translated directly into German as "holdsthemfromfloppen"

Sam

 

[gbaughma]

*facepalm*


Just my 2¢

"What the captain doesn't realize is that we've secretly replaced his Dilithium Crystals with new Folger's Crystals."

--Greg

http://parallel.tzo.com

 

[BadBigBen]

mscallisto and gbaughma,



Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[flapeyre]

Personally, I like Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzung (speed limit; although Tempolimit seems to be more common).

-- Francis
There are laws to protect the freedom of the press's speech, but none that are worth anything to protect the people from the press.
--Mark Twain

 

[SantaMufasa]

And then there is the issue of the romance that a language conveys. For example, the Spanish word for butterfly is the rather poetic-sounding mariposa...the German word for butterfly sounds like a brand of heavy machinery: Schmetterling.

This is probably one of the explanations why there are more romance novels written in Spanish than in German. <grin>

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
“People may forget what you say, but they will never forget how you made them feel.

 

[BadBigBen]

>> Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzung (Geschwindigkeitsbeschränkung)
Official nomenclature...

>> Tempolimit
Common usage in everyday life...

PS: Germany still has highways/motorways/freeways (etc.) (Autobahns) that have NO Speedlimit... much like the Northern Territories in Australia...



Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[SantaMufasa]

Although we weren't driving on the Autobahn, we were in my friend's German-made Porsche Targa in 1970 when we travelled from my home in Menlo Park, California, to school in Provo, Utah, making the 750-mile trip in just under 9 hours. Through the 400 miles through Nevada, we averaged 122 miles per hour, where the speed limit was still "prima facie", which translated to "as fast as you can travel safely".

It felt safe, and it seemed like we were travelling about 65 mph, and, luckily, there were very few other vehicles (including Highway Patrol) that might have taken issue with us (or made it less safe).

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
“People may forget what you say, but they will never forget how you made them feel.

 

[flapeyre]

According to

http://translate.google.com/,

"prima facie" is Latin for "at first sight".

I have a book of Latin phrases, which is fascinating.

We all know the phrase. "in flagrante delicto", which we take to mean "caught red-handed", usually in a (ahem) compromising position.

The author of this book gives the literal translation: "while the crime is blazing".

-- Francis
There are laws to protect the freedom of the press's speech, but none that are worth anything to protect the people from the press.
--Mark Twain

 

[Thadeus]

My favorite from this last year in Germany is

Arschgeweih - Literally 'ass antlers' which is used to describe the lower back tattoo known in the US as a Tramp Stamp.

Meister arschgeweih jäger,
thadeus

 

[SantaMufasa]

Meister arschgeweih jäger

So how many arschgeweih must you jagen to become the Meister? <grin>

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
“People may forget what you say, but they will never forget how you made them feel.