German words

We think of Germany as a great manufacturing nation, and the practical research on which it is based has contributed significantly to English vocabulary. Aspirin [L19th] is a German invention, formed from acetylierte Spirsäure ‘acetylated salicylic acid’, the Spir- element referring to the plant Spiraea from which it originally came. So is heroin [L19th], coined from the Latin for ‘hero’ because of the effect the drug had on users’ self-esteem. Although it is based on Latin parum ‘little’ and affinis ‘related’ because of its low reactivity, paraffin [M19th] is also a German coinage. In the 16th century Germany was a world leader in mining and this gives us *slag [M16th] and cobalt [L17th] from Kobalt ‘imp, demon’, because its ore was mixed with the silver ore the miners wanted and they believed it made it more difficult to mine. In engineering Germany gives us the automat [L17th] based on Latin automaton and spanner [L18th] formed from spannen ‘draw tight’.

 Germany has also given us many dog breeds. Poodle [E19th] is from Pudelhund ‘puddle hound’, for they were bred to retrieve waterfowl; dachshund [L19th] means ‘badger hound’, for they were bred to go down badger setts; Rottweilers [E20th] get their name from the German town of Rottweil; and schnauzers get theirs from Schnauze ‘muzzle, snout’.

 In the arts Germany contributed the Bildungsroman [E20th], literally an ‘education novel’; the spooky doppelgä nger [M19th] or double that features in so many horror stories; the leitmotiv [L19th] ‘leading motive’; and wine, women, and song, Wein, Weib, und Gesang, popularized as the title of an 1869 Johann Strauss waltz, but recorded much earlier; wunderkind [L19th], a child prodigy especially in music; waltz [L18th] from walzen ‘revolve’; and kitsch [E20th], along with ersatz [L19th] for an inferior substitute.

 German love of the outdoors gives us wanderlust [E20th], hinterland [L19th] ‘behind land’, and abseil [1930s] from ab ‘down’ and Seil ‘rope’. Other pleasures of life are reflected in fest [M19th] ‘festival’; lager [M19th] from Lagerbier ‘beer brewed for keeping’, from Lager ‘storehouse’; the spritzer [1960s], German for ‘splash’; and many types of cake which you might want to dunk [E20th] from dunke ‘dip’, the Pennsylvanian German dialect form of German tunken. While your infant is in kindergarten [M19th] ‘children’s garden’, you can stroll [E17th], formed from Strolch ‘vagabond’, and loaf, a back-formation from loafer [M19th] from Landläufer ‘tramp’.

 Some German military words were borrowed into English during the two world wars. Flak [M20th], ‘anti-aircraft fire’, is an abbreviation of Fliegerabwehrkanone, literally ‘aviator-defence gun’. By the 1960s it was sufficiently established in English for the extended sense of ‘strong criticism’ to develop. Blitz, a shortening of Blitzkrieg ‘lightning war’, described the German invasion of Poland of 1939. In the First World War strafe for a heavy bombardment was an ironic borrowing of the German catchphrase Gott strafe England ‘may God punish England’.

 While angst [E20th] is simply the German for ‘fear’, German’s ability to create words to describe feelings by combining two elements into one word is shown in zeitgeist [M19th] from Zeit ‘time’ plus Geist ‘spirit’, and schadenfreude [M19th] from Schaden ‘harm’ and Freude ‘joy’. One combining form that has been adopted into English is uber- [M20th] (German über) as an alternative to its equivalent ‘super’, to form words such as ‘uber-geek’. This is formed on the pattern of Übermensch, the original Superman, a term coined by the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche in 1883.

 See also boulevard, bowel, bum, cannon, diet, doodle, dude, ear, goblin, insular, kaput, masochism, mogul, nostalgia, pamper, peck, philistine, pink, poltergeist, queer, rack, rucksack, shark, shyster, smug, spare, statistic, swan, swindle, trade, traffic, travesty, troll, twilight, wobble, yiddish words.