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nodimetotie@lemmy.world to Germany@feddit.deEnglish · 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?

nodimetotie@lemmy.world to Germany@feddit.deEnglish · 2 years ago
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  • scorpionix@feddit.de
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    2 years ago

    Schadenfreude

    Zeitgeist

    Kindergarten

    • nodimetotie@lemmy.worldOP
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      2 years ago

      Haven’t heard Schadenfreude, good one to know

      • EmoDuck@sh.itjust.works
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        2 years ago

        Tanking joy in someone else’s suffering

  • Björn Tantau@swg-empire.de
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    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.

    • Magnetar@feddit.de
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      2 years ago

      Yeah, I brought the beamer in my body bag.

      • nodimetotie@lemmy.worldOP
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        2 years ago

        Beamer is a projector, right?

        • Magnetar@feddit.de
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          2 years ago

          Yep.

          • nodimetotie@lemmy.worldOP
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            2 years ago

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

      • muggedTassi@feddit.de
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        2 years ago

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

        • ErwinLottemann@feddit.de
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          2 years ago

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

    • nodimetotie@lemmy.worldOP
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      2 years ago

      That sounds hilarious

      • crispy_kilt@feddit.de
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        2 years ago

        For context: Germans call mobile phones “handys”

        • nodimetotie@lemmy.worldOP
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          2 years ago

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

          • Enkrod@feddit.de
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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.

            • mouserat@discuss.tchncs.de
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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

          • Björn Tantau@swg-empire.de
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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”.

  • Krachsterben@feddit.de
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    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.

    • nodimetotie@lemmy.worldOP
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      2 years ago

      Very cool!

  • admin@sh.itjust.works
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    2 years ago

    I think doppelgänger is the most spread one.

    • nodimetotie@lemmy.worldOP
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      2 years ago

      That’s a good one!

      • admin@sh.itjust.works
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        2 years ago

        Gracias compadre!

  • InternationalBastard@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    Gesundheit

    Poltergeist

    Spiel

    Stool ( Stuhl )

    Rucksack

    • nodimetotie@lemmy.worldOP
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      2 years ago

      Good ones! Rucksack is interesting because it also exists as a backpack, which is literally the translation of rucksack.

      • CoconutKnight@feddit.de
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        2 years ago

        …German even is my native language and I didn’t get it :((

        • nodimetotie@lemmy.worldOP
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          2 years ago

          You’re welcome)

    • nodimetotie@lemmy.worldOP
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      2 years ago

      I don’t think I heard Gesundheit used in English much, though

      • theDuesentrieb@feddit.de
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        2 years ago

        It is usually used as an alternative to the religiously framed “bless you” when someone sneezes

        • nodimetotie@lemmy.worldOP
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          2 years ago

          Good to know!

  • this_is_router@feddit.de
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    2 years ago

    For the chess people: Zugzwang and Zwischenzug!

    • nodimetotie@lemmy.worldOP
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      2 years ago

      Not a chess person, never heard of them

    • EmoDuck@sh.itjust.works
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      2 years ago

      Zugzwang is self explanatory but what is Zwischenzug?

  • crispy_kilt@feddit.de
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    2 years ago

    Zeitgeist

    Spiel

    Schadenfreude

    Kindergarten

  • beeng@discuss.tchncs.de
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    2 years ago

    Iceberg

    • nodimetotie@lemmy.worldOP
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      2 years ago

      Really?

      • PlexSheep@feddit.de
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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.

        • nodimetotie@lemmy.worldOP
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          2 years ago

          I never made the connection, thanks!

        • InternationalBastard@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

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

          • Don_alForno@feddit.de
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            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,… )

  • Successful_Try543@feddit.de
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    Eigenvalues and eigenvectors, which however, were not discovered by the well known mathematician Eigen. Ansatz ist also commonly used in research articles.

    • nodimetotie@lemmy.worldOP
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      It’s funny how both the German and English stems from the whole word.

    • nodimetotie@lemmy.worldOP
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      But surely eigenspaces were discovered by Dr. Eigen. Right?

      • Successful_Try543@feddit.de
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        2 years ago

        And don’t forget the famous Binomi brothers.

        • nodimetotie@lemmy.worldOP
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          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…

          • Successful_Try543@feddit.de
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            They’ve discovered the binomial formulas too.

  • Ook the Librarian@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    Gift. No wait

    • foobaz@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      9

  • nodimetotie@lemmy.worldOP
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    2 years ago

    I guess mine would be kaput

    • crispy_kilt@feddit.de
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      2 years ago

      Kaputt*

      • nodimetotie@lemmy.worldOP
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        2 years ago

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

        • Spzi@lemm.ee
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          2 years ago

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

        • crispy_kilt@feddit.de
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          Probably a mistake that got so common that it is now accepted as correct

    • EmoDuck@sh.itjust.works
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      That’s ok, just tell us when it’s working again

      • nodimetotie@lemmy.worldOP
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        Nah, it’s kaput for gut

  • Froyn@kbin.social
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    As an American: Hamburger

    • nodimetotie@lemmy.worldOP
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      I guess Wieners and Frankfurters would also count

  • uebquauntbez@feddit.de
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    2 years ago

    (German) Angst Apfelstrudel Kindergarten Oberlichte …

  • the_wise_wolf@feddit.de
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    2 years ago

    Bremsstrahlung

    • ErwinLottemann@feddit.de
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      2 years ago

      was soll das sein?

      • aaaaaaaaargh@feddit.de
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        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.

      • Kornblumenratte@feddit.de
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        Strahlung, die beim Abbremsen von Partikeln entsteht.

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

  • beeng@discuss.tchncs.de
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    Meister

    Gestalt

    • nodimetotie@lemmy.worldOP
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      Gestalt is an awesome word

    • beeng@discuss.tchncs.de
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      deleted by creator

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