Tag Archives: german etymology
The German Nightmare Posted by Constanze on Jun 6, 2015
Guten Tag! Today I’m going to talk a little about der Schlaf (sleep) or, more specifically, nightmares. The reason I wanted to write this post is because someone sent me music by the German band Nachtmahr (‘Nightmare’) the other day. I have always known the German word for nightmare to be der Alptraum, so I…
Untranslatable German Words: Der Geisterfahrer Posted by Constanze on Sep 17, 2014
Guten Tag! Here’s another little German language lesson in the form of an untranslatable German word – and today there are a few other words thrown in for good measure. Today’s word is Der Geisterfahrer. Before I tell you what this word means, here are some similar-looking words, along with their meanings. You will see…
The German wimp: A broad definition Posted by Constanze on Jul 13, 2014
Guten Tag, and wilkommen to another post on untranslatable German words. This week I want to talk about a word that I didn’t know until last week, when a customer at work told me about “this German word that means you park in the shade”. He thought it was hilarious, but he couldn’t remember exactly…
The German culture of cleanliness: Putzfimmel and Kehrwoche Posted by Constanze on Jul 6, 2014
Everyone I know who’s been to Germany has commented on what a clean country it is. Germany is stereotyped as being clean, anyway – although how much of this is a stereotype, and how much of it is the simple truth? There are two words in the German language that suggest Germany has a culture…
Untranslatable German Words: Teil 2 Posted by Constanze on Jun 20, 2014
Guten Tag, and wilkommen to week 2 of my series of posts on ‘untranslatable’ German words! In this series of posts I talk about one or more German words that there is no direct translation for in English. In my first post on this topic, I suggested that the reason for this was to do…