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@[email protected] to [email protected]English • 2 years ago

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

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

@[email protected] to [email protected]English • 2 years ago
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  • @[email protected]
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    11•2 years ago

    (German) Angst Apfelstrudel Kindergarten Oberlichte …

  • Ook the Librarian
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    15•2 years ago

    Gift. No wait

    • @[email protected]
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      2•2 years ago

      9

  • @[email protected]
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    15•2 years ago

    Iceberg

    • @[email protected]OP
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      English
      4•2 years ago

      Really?

      • @[email protected]
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        7•
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        2 years ago

        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.

        • InternationalBastard
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          3•2 years ago

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

          • @[email protected]
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            7•2 years ago

            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,… )

        • @[email protected]OP
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          3•2 years ago

          I never made the connection, thanks!

  • Meldrik
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    8•2 years ago

    “Fuck”

    • @[email protected]OP
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      2•2 years ago

      No fucking way

    • @[email protected]
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      5•2 years ago

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

      • Meldrik
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        2•2 years ago

        Ignorance, I guess 😅

    • Ey ich frag doch nur
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      6•2 years ago

      Was zum Fick

  • @[email protected]
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    8•2 years ago

    Abseiling

    • @[email protected]
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      6•2 years ago

      First orderly an abseiling

    • @[email protected]OP
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      English
      2•2 years ago

      I guess I should try that sometime

      • @[email protected]
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        3•
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        2 years ago

        “Einen abseilen” can also mean going number 2

  • @[email protected]
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    40•2 years ago

    Schadenfreude

    Zeitgeist

    Kindergarten

    • @[email protected]OP
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      7•2 years ago

      Haven’t heard Schadenfreude, good one to know

      • @[email protected]
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        3•2 years ago

        Tanking joy in someone else’s suffering

  • @[email protected]
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    11•2 years ago

    Bremsstrahlung

    • @[email protected]
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      2•2 years ago

      was soll das sein?

      • @[email protected]
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        Deutsch
        2•
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        2 years ago

        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.

      • @[email protected]
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        2•2 years ago

        Strahlung, die beim Abbremsen von Partikeln entsteht.

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

  • this_is_router
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    16•2 years ago

    For the chess people: Zugzwang and Zwischenzug!

    • @[email protected]OP
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      3•2 years ago

      Not a chess person, never heard of them

    • @[email protected]
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      2•2 years ago

      Zugzwang is self explanatory but what is Zwischenzug?

  • @[email protected]
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    20•2 years ago

    I think doppelgänger is the most spread one.

    • @[email protected]OP
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      3•2 years ago

      That’s a good one!

      • @[email protected]
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        2•2 years ago

        Gracias compadre!

  • @[email protected]
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    15•
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    2 years ago

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

    • @[email protected]OP
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      4•2 years ago

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

    • @[email protected]OP
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      3•2 years ago

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

      • @[email protected]
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        4•2 years ago

        And don’t forget the famous Binomi brothers.

        • @[email protected]OP
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          2•2 years ago

          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…

          • @[email protected]
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            2•2 years ago

            They’ve discovered the binomial formulas too.

  • Björn Tantau
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    36•2 years ago

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

    • @[email protected]
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      11•2 years ago

      Yeah, I brought the beamer in my body bag.

      • muggedTassi
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        2•2 years ago

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

        • @[email protected]
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          2•2 years ago

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

      • @[email protected]OP
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        English
        5•2 years ago

        Beamer is a projector, right?

        • @[email protected]
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          4•2 years ago

          Yep.

          • @[email protected]OP
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            1•2 years ago

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

    • @[email protected]OP
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      2•2 years ago

      That sounds hilarious

      • @[email protected]
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        6•2 years ago

        For context: Germans call mobile phones “handys”

        • @[email protected]OP
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          4•2 years ago

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

          • Björn Tantau
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            2•
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            2 years ago

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

            Edit: Or maybe from “handset”.

          • Enkrod
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            2 years ago

            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.

            • @[email protected]
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              7•
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              2 years ago

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

  • Froyn
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    12•2 years ago

    As an American: Hamburger

    • @[email protected]OP
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      7•2 years ago

      I guess Wieners and Frankfurters would also count

  • @[email protected]OP
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    English
    12•2 years ago

    I guess mine would be kaput

    • @[email protected]
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      5•2 years ago

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

      • @[email protected]OP
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        1•2 years ago

        Nah, it’s kaput for gut

    • @[email protected]
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      9•2 years ago

      Kaputt*

      • @[email protected]OP
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        4•2 years ago

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

        • Spzi
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          3•2 years ago

          Funny! So we can say “‘kaput’ is(t) kaputt.”

        • @[email protected]
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          3•2 years ago

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

  • @[email protected]
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    21•
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    2 years ago

    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.

    • @[email protected]OP
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      3•2 years ago

      Very cool!

  • @[email protected]
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    9•2 years ago

    Halt!

    • @[email protected]
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      13•2 years ago

      Hammerzeit!

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