List of German expressions in English
Encyclopedia
This is a list of German
expressions used in English
; some are relatively common (e.g. hamburger
), but most comparatively rare. In many cases, the German borrowing
in English has assumed a meaning substantially different from its German forebear.
English and German both descended from the West Germanic languages
, though their relationship has been obscured by the great influx of Norman French words to English as a consequence of the Norman conquest of England
in 1066, and the High German consonant shift
. In recent years, however, many English words have been borrowed directly from German. Typically, English spellings of German loanword
s suppress any umlauts
(the superscript, double-dot diacritic
in Ä, Ö, Ü, ä, ö and ü) of the original word or replace the umlaut letters with Ae, Oe, Ue, ae, oe, ue, respectively (as is done commonly in German speaking countries when the umlaut is not available: the origin of the umlaut was a superscript E).
German words have been incorporated into English usage for many reasons:
As languages, English and German descend from the common ancestor language West Germanic and further back to Proto-Germanic
; because of this, some English words are essentially identical to their German lexical counterparts, either in spelling (Arm, Hand, Sand, Finger) or pronunciation (fish = Fisch, mouse = Maus), or both (Ring); these are excluded from this list.
German common nouns adopted into English are in general not initially capitalised, and the ß is generally changed to ss.
Those marked * are not generally used in an English context.
, psychology
, philosophy
, music
, and the physical science
s; laypeople in a given field may or may not be familiar with a given German term.
Minerals including:
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
expressions used in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
; some are relatively common (e.g. hamburger
Hamburger
A hamburger is a sandwich consisting of a cooked patty of ground meat usually placed inside a sliced bread roll...
), but most comparatively rare. In many cases, the German borrowing
Loanword
A loanword is a word borrowed from a donor language and incorporated into a recipient language. By contrast, a calque or loan translation is a related concept where the meaning or idiom is borrowed rather than the lexical item itself. The word loanword is itself a calque of the German Lehnwort,...
in English has assumed a meaning substantially different from its German forebear.
English and German both descended from the West Germanic languages
West Germanic languages
The West Germanic languages constitute the largest of the three traditional branches of the Germanic family of languages and include languages such as German, English, Dutch, Afrikaans, the Frisian languages, and Yiddish...
, though their relationship has been obscured by the great influx of Norman French words to English as a consequence of the Norman conquest of England
Norman conquest of England
The Norman conquest of England began on 28 September 1066 with the invasion of England by William, Duke of Normandy. William became known as William the Conqueror after his victory at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, defeating King Harold II of England...
in 1066, and the High German consonant shift
High German consonant shift
In historical linguistics, the High German consonant shift or second Germanic consonant shift is a phonological development that took place in the southern parts of the West Germanic dialect continuum in several phases, probably beginning between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD, and was almost...
. In recent years, however, many English words have been borrowed directly from German. Typically, English spellings of German loanword
Loanword
A loanword is a word borrowed from a donor language and incorporated into a recipient language. By contrast, a calque or loan translation is a related concept where the meaning or idiom is borrowed rather than the lexical item itself. The word loanword is itself a calque of the German Lehnwort,...
s suppress any umlauts
Germanic umlaut
In linguistics, umlaut is a process whereby a vowel is pronounced more like a following vowel or semivowel. The term umlaut was originally coined and is used principally in connection with the study of the Germanic languages...
(the superscript, double-dot diacritic
Diacritic
A diacritic is a glyph added to a letter, or basic glyph. The term derives from the Greek διακριτικός . Diacritic is both an adjective and a noun, whereas diacritical is only an adjective. Some diacritical marks, such as the acute and grave are often called accents...
in Ä, Ö, Ü, ä, ö and ü) of the original word or replace the umlaut letters with Ae, Oe, Ue, ae, oe, ue, respectively (as is done commonly in German speaking countries when the umlaut is not available: the origin of the umlaut was a superscript E).
German words have been incorporated into English usage for many reasons:
- German cultural artefacts, especially foods, have spread to English-speaking nations and often are identified either by their original German names or by German-sounding English names
- Developments and discoveries in German-speaking nations in scienceScienceScience is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
, scholarshipScholarly methodScholarly method or scholarship is the body of principles and practices used by scholars to make their claims about the world as valid and trustworthy as possible, and to make them known to the scholarly public.-Methods:...
, and classical musicClassical musicClassical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
have led to German words for new concepts, which have been adopted into English: for example the words doppelgängerDoppelgängerIn fiction and folklore, a doppelgänger is a paranormal double of a living person, typically representing evil or misfortune...
and angstAngstAngst is an English, German, Danish, Norwegian and Dutch word for fear or anxiety . It is used in English to describe an intense feeling of apprehension, anxiety or inner turmoil...
in psychology. - Discussion of German history and culture requires some German words.
- Some German words are used in English narrative to identify that the subject expressed is in German, e.g. Frau, Reich.
As languages, English and German descend from the common ancestor language West Germanic and further back to Proto-Germanic
Germanic languages
The Germanic languages constitute a sub-branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all of the languages in this branch is called Proto-Germanic , which was spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe...
; because of this, some English words are essentially identical to their German lexical counterparts, either in spelling (Arm, Hand, Sand, Finger) or pronunciation (fish = Fisch, mouse = Maus), or both (Ring); these are excluded from this list.
German common nouns adopted into English are in general not initially capitalised, and the ß is generally changed to ss.
German terms commonly used in English
Most of these words will be recognized by many English speakers; they are commonly used in English contexts. Some, such as wurst and pumpernickel, retain German connotations, while others, such as lager and hamburger, retain none. Not every word is recognizable outside its relevant context. A number of these expressions are used in American English, under the influence of German immigration, but not in British English.Food and drink
- Berliner WeisseBerliner WeisseBerliner Weisse is a cloudy, sour wheat beer of around 3% abv. It is a regional beer from Northern Germany, mainly Berlin, dating back to the 16th century. By the 19th century, Berliner Weisse was the most popular alcoholic drink in Berlin, and 700 breweries produced it...
*, sour beer infused with fruit syrup - Biergarten, open-air drinking establishment
- BraunschweigerBraunschweigerBraunschweiger is a type of liverwurst which, if stuffed in natural casings, is nearly always smoked...
, a liverwurst cold-cut. - BratwurstBratwurstA bratwurst is a sausage usually composed of veal, pork or beef. The plural in German is Bratwürste....
(sometimes abbrev. brat), type of sausage - Bundt cakeBundt cakeA bundt cake is a dessert cake that is baked in a bundt pan, shaping it into a distinctive ridged ring. The d in "bundt" is assimilated into the t. The term is used chiefly in North America....
, a ring cake (from bundkuchen, literally "gathering cake") - DelikatessenDelicatessenDelicatessen is a term meaning "delicacies" or "fine foods". The word entered English via German,with the old German spelling , plural of Delikatesse "delicacy", ultimately from Latin delicatus....
, speciality food retailer, fine foods - FrankfurterHot dogA hot dog is a sausage served in a sliced bun. It is very often garnished with mustard, ketchup, onions, mayonnaise, relish and/or sauerkraut.-History:...
, type of sausage - Gummi bear, also found with the Anglicized spelling gummy bear, German spelling: Gummibär
- HamburgerHamburgerA hamburger is a sandwich consisting of a cooked patty of ground meat usually placed inside a sliced bread roll...
, sandwich with a meat patty and garnishments - HasenpfefferHasenpfefferHasenpfeffer is a traditional German stew made from marinated rabbit or hare, cut into stewing-meat sized pieces and braised with onions and wine in a marinade thickened with the animal's blood...
, type of rabbit (or hare) stew - HefeweizenWheat beerWheat beer is a beer that is brewed with a large proportion of wheat. Wheat beers often also contain a significant proportion of malted barley. Wheat beers are usually top-fermented...
, unfiltered wheat beer (containing yeast) - KipfelCroissantA croissant is a buttery flaky pastry named for its distinctive crescent shape. It is also sometimes called a crescent, from the French word for "crescent". Croissants are made of a leavened variant of puff pastry...
, also kipferl, a horn-shaped type of pastry - KirschwasserKirschwasserKirschwasser is a clear, colorless fruit brandy traditionally made from double distillation of morello cherries, a dark-colored cultivar of the sour cherry. However, it is now also made from other kinds of cherries. The cherries are fermented complete...
, spirit drink made from cherries - KnackwurstKnackwurstKnackwurst may refer to a variety of different sausage types, depending on the geographical region.In America, Knackwurst may refer to a short, plump sausage originating from the Holstein region in Germany. They contain ground veal, ground pork, and fresh garlic stuffed into hog casings. The...
, cooked sausage - Kohlrabi, type of cabbage
- LagerLagerLager is a type of beer made from malted barley that is brewed and stored at low temperatures. There are many types of lager; pale lager is the most widely-consumed and commercially available style of beer in the world; Pilsner, Bock, Dortmunder Export and Märzen are all styles of lager...
, beer made with bottom-fermenting yeast and stored for some time before serving - Leberwurst, pork liver sausage
- MaßMaßThe is a term used in German-speaking countries for a unit of volume, now typically used only for measuring beer sold for immediate on-site consumption. In modern times, a is defined as exactly 1 litre....
*, a unit of volume used for measuring beer - MuesliMuesliMuesli is a popular breakfast cereal based on uncooked rolled oats, fruit and nuts. It was developed around 1900 by Swiss physician Maximilian Bircher-Benner for patients in his hospital...
, breakfast cereal (Swiss GermanSwiss GermanSwiss German is any of the Alemannic dialects spoken in Switzerland and in some Alpine communities in Northern Italy. Occasionally, the Alemannic dialects spoken in other countries are grouped together with Swiss German as well, especially the dialects of Liechtenstein and Austrian Vorarlberg...
diminutiveDiminutiveIn language structure, a diminutive, or diminutive form , is a formation of a word used to convey a slight degree of the root meaning, smallness of the object or quality named, encapsulation, intimacy, or endearment...
of "mues"; (German spelling: Müsli), possibly related to English "mush") - PilsenerPilsenerPilsner is a type of pale lager. It takes its name from the city of Pilsen , Bohemia, in today's Czech Republic, where it has been developed since 1842, when a bottom-fermented beer was first produced. The original Pilsner Urquell beer is produced there today.-Origin:Until the mid-1840s, most ...
(or Pils, Pilsner), pale lager beer - PretzelPretzelA pretzel is a type of baked food made from dough in soft and hard varieties and savory or sweet flavors in a unique knot-like shape, originating in Europe...
(Standard German spelling: Brezel), flour and yeast based pastry - PumpernickelPumpernickelPumpernickel is a type of very heavy, slightly sweet rye bread traditionally made with coarsely ground rye. It is often made with a combination of rye flour and whole rye berries. It has been long associated with the Westphalia region of Germany. The first written mention of the black bread of...
, type of sourdough rye bread, strongly flavoured, dense, and dark in colour - QuarkQuark (cheese)Quark is a type of fresh cheese, also known as tvorog , topfen , biezpiens , and varškė . It is made by warming soured milk until the desired degree of denaturation of milk proteins is met, and then strained...
, a type of fresh cheese - RollmopsRollmopsRollmops are pickled herring fillets, rolled into a cylindrical shape around slices of onion, pickled gherkin, or green olive with pimento. Rollmops can be served held together with one or two small wooden skewers....
, rolled, pickled herring fillet - SauerkrautSauerkrautSauerkraut , directly translated from German: "sour cabbage", is finely shredded cabbage that has been fermented by various lactic acid bacteria, including Leuconostoc, Lactobacillus, and Pediococcus. It has a long shelf-life and a distinctive sour flavor, both of which result from the lactic acid...
(sometimes shortened to KrautKrautKraut is a German word recorded in English from 1918 onwards as a derogatory term for a German, particularly a German soldier during World War I and World War II. Its earlier meaning in English was as a synonym for sauerkraut, a traditional German and central European food.- Etymological...
), fermented cabbage - SchnapsSchnappsSchnapps is a type of distilled alcoholic beverage. The English word schnapps is derived from the German Schnaps , which can refer to any strong alcoholic drink but particularly those containing at least 32% ABV...
, distilled beverage - SpritzerSpritzerA spritzer is a tall, chilled drink, usually made with white wine and seltzer or club soda.-Origin and variations:Spritzer is derived from the variant of the German language spoken in Austria, where the drink is very popular. It is used alongside the equally common form Gespritzter A spritzer is a...
, chilled drink from white wine and soda water (from "spritzen" = to spray) - SteinBeer steinBeer stein , or simply stein, is an English neologism for either traditional beer mugs made out of stoneware, or specifically ornamental beer mugs that are usually sold as souvenirs or collectibles...
, large drinking mug, usually for beer (from "Steingut" = earthenware, referring to the material) - StreuselStreuselIn baking and pastry making, streusel is a crumb topping of butter, flour, and white sugar that is baked on top of muffins, breads, and cakes .Some modern recipes add various spices and occasionally chopped nutmeats...
- StrudelStrudelA strudel is a type of layered pastry with a — most often sweet — filling inside, often served with cream. It became well known and gained popularity in the 18th century through the Habsburg Empire....
(e. g. ApfelstrudelApfelstrudelApple strudel is a traditional Viennese strudel, a popular pastry in Austria and in many countries in Europe that once belonged to the Austro-Hungarian empire .-History:...
, milk-cream strudelMilk-cream strudelThe milk-cream strudel is a traditional Viennese strudel. It is a popular pastry in Austria and in many countries in Europe that once belonged to the Austro-Hungarian empire...
), a filled pastry - WienerHot dogA hot dog is a sausage served in a sliced bun. It is very often garnished with mustard, ketchup, onions, mayonnaise, relish and/or sauerkraut.-History:...
, hot dog (from "Wiener Würstchen" = Viennese sausage) - Wiener Schnitzel, crumbed veal cutlet
- Wurst, sausage, cold cutCold cutCold cuts are cheeses or precooked or cured meat, often sausages or meat loaves, that are sliced and usually served cold on sandwiches or on party trays. They can be bought pre-sliced in vacuum packs at a supermarket or grocery store, or they can be purchased at a delicatessen or deli counter,...
s - ZwiebackZwiebackZwieback is a type of crisp, sweetened bread, made with eggs and baked twice.It is sliced before it is baked a second time, which produces crisp, brittle slices that closely resemble melba toast...
, a "twice baked" bread; rusk, variants: German hard biscuits; Mennonite double yeast rollRussian Mennonite zwiebackRussian Mennonite zwieback is a yeast bread roll formed from two pieces of dough that are pulled apart when eaten. Placing the two balls of dough one on top of the other so that the top one does not fall off during the baking process is part of the art and challenge that must be mastered by the baker...
.
Those marked * are not generally used in an English context.
Sports and recreation
- Abseil (German spelling: sich abseilen, a reflexive verb, to rope (seil) oneself (sich) down (ab)); the term abseiling is used in the UK and commonwealth countries, "roping (down)" in various English settings, and "rappelling" in the US.
- BlitzBlitz (American football)In American football or Canadian football, a blitz or red dog is when players on or behind the line of scrimmage during a play, are sent across the scrimmage line to the offensive side to try to tackle the quarterback or disrupt his pass attempt...
, taken from BlitzkriegBlitzkriegFor other uses of the word, see: Blitzkrieg Blitzkrieg is an anglicized word describing all-motorised force concentration of tanks, infantry, artillery, combat engineers and air power, concentrating overwhelming force at high speed to break through enemy lines, and, once the lines are broken,...
(lightning war). It is a team defensive play in American or Canadian football in which the defense sends more players than the offense can block. - FoosballTable footballTable football, also known as gitoni or foosball, is a table-top game and sport that is loosely based on association football.-Names:...
, probably from the German word for table footballTable footballTable football, also known as gitoni or foosball, is a table-top game and sport that is loosely based on association football.-Names:...
, Tischfußball, although foosball itself is referred to as Kicker in German. - HandstandHandstandA handstand is the act of supporting the body in a stable, inverted vertical position by balancing on the hands. In a basic handstand the body is held straight with arms and legs fully extended, with hands spaced approximately shoulder-width apart...
- Karabiner, snaplink, a metal loop with a sprung or screwed gate, used in climbing and mountaineering; modern short form/derivation of the older word 'Karabinerhaken'; translates to 'riflehook'. The German word can also mean CarbineCarbineA carbine , from French carabine, is a longarm similar to but shorter than a rifle or musket. Many carbines are shortened versions of full rifles, firing the same ammunition at a lower velocity due to a shorter barrel length....
. - Kutte (literally frock or cowl), a type of vest made out of denim or leather and traditionally worn by bikerOutlaw motorcycle clubAn outlaw motorcycle club is a type of motorcycle club that is part of a subculture with roots in the post-World War II USA, centered on cruiser motorcycles, particularly Harley-Davidsons and choppers, and a set of ideals celebrating freedom, nonconformity to mainstream culture, and loyalty to the...
s, metalheads and punkPunk subcultureThe punk subculture includes a diverse array of ideologies, and forms of expression, including fashion, visual art, dance, literature, and film, which grew out of punk rock.-History:...
s; in German the word also refers to the clothes of monkMonkA monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, while always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...
s. - KletterschuhClimbing shoeA climbing shoe is a specialized type of footwear designed for rock climbing. Typical climbing shoes have a close fit, little if any padding, and a smooth, sticky rubber sole with an extended rubber rand...
, climbing shoe (mountaineering) - Mannschaft, the national football team of Germany
- Rucksack (more commonly called a backpackBackpackA backpack is, in its simplest form, a cloth sack carried on one's back and secured with two straps that go over the shoulders, but there can be exceptions...
in U.S. EnglishAmerican EnglishAmerican English is a set of dialects of the English language used mostly in the United States. Approximately two-thirds of the world's native speakers of English live in the United States....
) - SchussSchussIn alpine skiing, a schuss or schussboom is a straight downhill run at high speed, contrasting with a slalom, mogul, or ski jumping.Schuss was also the unofficial mascot of the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France, featuring a cartoon character wearing skis. Ever since then, every Olympic Games...
, literally: shot (skiSkiA ski is a long, flat device worn on the foot, usually attached through a boot, designed to help the wearer slide smoothly over snow. Originally intended as an aid to travel in snowy regions, they are now mainly used for recreational and sporting purposes...
) down a slopeSlopeIn mathematics, the slope or gradient of a line describes its steepness, incline, or grade. A higher slope value indicates a steeper incline....
at high speed - TurnerTurnersTurners are members of German-American gymnastic clubs. A German gymnastic movement was started by Turnvater Friedrich Ludwig Jahn in the early 19th century when Germany was occupied by Napoleon...
, a gymnast - Turnverein, a gymnasticsGymnasticsGymnastics is a sport involving performance of exercises requiring physical strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, and balance. Internationally, all of the gymnastic sports are governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique with each country having its own national governing body...
clubClubA club is an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal. A service club, for example, exists for voluntary or charitable activities; there are clubs devoted to hobbies and sports, social activities clubs, political and religious clubs, and so forth.- History...
or society - Volksmarsch / VolkssportVolksmarchingVolksmarching is a form of non-competitive fitness walking that developed in Europe. Participants typically walk on an outdoor path. Volksmarch associations offer incentive awards for collecting a certain number of events...
, non-competitive fitness walking - VolkswanderungVolksmarchingVolksmarching is a form of non-competitive fitness walking that developed in Europe. Participants typically walk on an outdoor path. Volksmarch associations offer incentive awards for collecting a certain number of events...
Other aspects of everyday life
- –bahn as a suffix, e.g. InfobahnInformation superhighwayThe information superhighway or infobahnwas a popular term used through the 1990s to refer to digital communication systems and the Internet telecommunications network. It is associated with United States Senator and later Vice-President Al Gore....
, after Autobahn - Blücher, a half-boot named after Prussian Field Marshal Gebhard Leberecht von BlücherGebhard Leberecht von BlücherGebhard Leberecht von Blücher, Fürst von Wahlstatt , Graf , later elevated to Fürst von Wahlstatt, was a Prussian Generalfeldmarschall who led his army against Napoleon I at the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig in 1813 and at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 with the Duke of Wellington.He is...
(1742–1819); also a hand in the British card game NapoleonNapoleon (card game)Napoleon or Nap is a straightforward trick taking game in which players receive five cards each; whoever bids the highest number of tricks chooses trumps and tries to win at least that many. It is a simplified relative of Euchre, and with many variations throughout Northern Europe...
. - DachshundDachshundThe dachshund is a short-legged, long-bodied dog breed belonging to the hound family. The standard size dachshund was bred to scent, chase, and flush out badgers and other burrow-dwelling animals, while the miniature dachshund was developed to hunt smaller prey such as rabbits...
, literally badger dog; a dog breed (usually referred to as Dackel in German usage) - Doberman Pinscher, a dog breed
- DoppelgängerDoppelgängerIn fiction and folklore, a doppelgänger is a paranormal double of a living person, typically representing evil or misfortune...
, literally double-goer, also spelled in English as doppelganger; a double or look-alike. However, in English the connotation is that of a ghostly apparition of a duplicate living person. - Dreck, literally dirt or smut, but now meaning trashy, awful (through Yiddish, OED s.v.)
- Dummkopf, literally stupid head; a stupid, ignorant person, similar to numbskull in English
- erlaubt, allowed, granted - opposite of verboten.
- ErsatzErsatzErsatz means 'substituting for, and typically inferior in quality to', e.g. 'chicory is ersatz coffee'. It is a German word literally meaning substitute or replacement...
, replacement; usually implying an artificial and inferior substitute or imitation - Fest, festival
- Flak, Flugabwehrkanone, literally: air-defence cannon, for anti-aircraft artillery or their shells, also used in flak jacketFlak jacketthumb|300px|The two components of an obsolete British military flak vest. On the left, the nylon vest. On the right, the several layers of [[ballistic nylon]] that provide the actual protection...
; or in the figurative sense: "drawing flak" = being heavily criticized - GemütlichkeitGemütlichkeitGemütlichkeit is a German abstract noun that has been adopted into English. Its closest equivalent is the word "coziness"; however, rather than merely describing a place that is compact, well-heated and nicely furnished , Gemütlichkeit connotes the notion of belonging, social acceptance,...
, coziness - Gesundheit, literally health; an exclamation used in place of "bless you!" after someone has sneezed
- HausfrauHousewifeHousewife is a term used to describe a married woman with household responsibilities who is not employed outside the home. Merriam Webster describes a housewife as a married woman who is in charge of her household...
, pejorative: frumpy, petty-bourgeois, traditional, pre-emancipation type housewife whose interests centre on the home, or who is even exclusively interested in domestic matters (colloquial, American English only), sometimes humorously used to replace "wife", but with the same mildly derisive connotation - Kaffeeklatsch, literally coffee gossip; afternoon meeting where people (usually referring to women) chitchat while drinking coffee or tea
- kaput (German spelling: kaputt), out-of-order, broken
- KindergartenKindergartenA kindergarten is a preschool educational institution for children. The term was created by Friedrich Fröbel for the play and activity institute that he created in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg as a social experience for children for their transition from home to school...
, literally children's garden; day-care centre, playschool, preschool - KitschKitschKitsch is a form of art that is considered an inferior, tasteless copy of an extant style of art or a worthless imitation of art of recognized value. The concept is associated with the deliberate use of elements that may be thought of as cultural icons while making cheap mass-produced objects that...
, cheap, sentimental, gaudy items of popular culture - KrautKrautKraut is a German word recorded in English from 1918 onwards as a derogatory term for a German, particularly a German soldier during World War I and World War II. Its earlier meaning in English was as a synonym for sauerkraut, a traditional German and central European food.- Etymological...
, literally cabbage; derogatory term for a German - LebensraumLebensraumwas one of the major political ideas of Adolf Hitler, and an important component of Nazi ideology. It served as the motivation for the expansionist policies of Nazi Germany, aiming to provide extra space for the growth of the German population, for a Greater Germany...
, literally living space; conquered territory, now synonymous with the Nazi Party - MeisterMeisterMeister means master in German . The word is akin to maestro. Many modern day German police forces use the title Meister. During the Second World War, Meister was the highest enlisted rank of the Ordnungspolizei.Meister has been borrowed into English slang, where it is used in compound nouns...
, master, also as a suffix: –meister - NaziNazismNazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
, short for Nationalsozialist (National Socialist) - NeanderthalNeanderthalThe Neanderthal is an extinct member of the Homo genus known from Pleistocene specimens found in Europe and parts of western and central Asia...
(modern German spelling: Neandertal), for German Neandertaler, meaning "of, from, or pertaining to the Neandertal ("Neander Valley")", the site near DüsseldorfDüsseldorfDüsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...
where early Homo neanderthalensis fossils were found - NoodleNoodleThe noodle is a type of food, made from any of a variety of doughs, formed into long thin ribbons, strips, curly-cues, waves, helices, pipes, tubes, strings, or other various shapes, sometimes folded. They are usually cooked in a mixture of boiling water and/or oil. Depending upon the type, noodles...
, from German Nudel, a type of food; a string of pasta. - OktoberfestOktoberfestOktoberfest, or Wiesn, is a 16–18 day beer festival held annually in Munich, Bavaria, Germany, running from late September to the first weekend in October. It is one of the most famous events in Germany and is the world's largest fair, with more than 5 million people attending every year. The...
, Bavarian folk festival held annually in MunichMunichMunich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
during late September and early October - PoltergeistPoltergeistA poltergeist is a paranormal phenomenon which consists of events alluding to the manifestation of an imperceptible entity. Such manifestation typically includes inanimate objects moving or being thrown about, sentient noises and, on some occasions, physical attacks on those witnessing the...
, literally noisy ghost; an alleged paranormalParanormalParanormal is a general term that designates experiences that lie outside "the range of normal experience or scientific explanation" or that indicates phenomena understood to be outside of science's current ability to explain or measure...
phenomenon where objects appear to move of their own accord - PoodlePoodleThe Poodle is a breed of dog. The poodle breed is found officially in toy, miniature, and standard sizes, with many coat colors. Originally bred as a type of water dog, the poodle is highly intelligent and skillful in many dog sports, including agility, obedience, tracking, and even herding...
, from German Pudel, breed of dog - RottweilerRottweilerThe Rottweiler is a medium to large size breed of domestic dog that originated in Rottweil, Germany. The dogs were known as "Rottweil butchers' dogs" because they were used to herd livestock and pull carts laden with butchered meat and other products to market...
, breed of dog - SchadenfreudeSchadenfreudeSchadenfreude is pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others. This German word is used as a loanword in English and some other languages, and has been calqued in Danish and Norwegian as skadefryd and Swedish as skadeglädje....
, joy from pain (literally harm joy); delight at the misfortune of others - Scheiße, an expression and euphemism meaning "shit", usually as an interjection when something goes amiss
- SchnauzerSchnauzerA Schnauzer is a German dog type that originated in Germany in the 15th and 16th centuries. The term comes from Schnauze , the German word for "snout", because of the dog's distinctively bearded snout. The word Schnauzer also means moustache in German; some authorities, such as Encyclopædia...
, breed of dog - SpitzSpitzSpitz-type dogs are a type of dog, characterized by long, thick, and often white fur, and pointed ears and muzzles...
, a breed of dog - uber, überÜberÜber comes from the German language. It has one umlaut. It is a cognate of both Latin super and Greek ὑπέρ...
, over; used to indicate that something or someone is of better or superior magnitude, e.g. ÜbermenschÜbermenschThe Übermensch is a concept in the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche posited the Übermensch as a goal for humanity to set for itself in his 1883 book Thus Spoke Zarathustra .... - Ur– (German prefix), original or prototypical; e.g. UrspracheProto-languageA proto-language in the tree model of historical linguistics is the common ancestor of the languages that form a language family. Occasionally, the German term Ursprache is used instead.Often the proto-language is not known directly...
, UrtextUrtextUrtext is a word of German origin; ur- means "original," and text is as in English.In the humanities and social sciences, the word is often used in a metaphorical fashion to refer to a primitive, seminal, or prototypical example of an artistic genre or the basis of an ideological movement... - verboten, prohibited, forbidden. In both English and German, this word has authoritarian connotations.
- VolkswagenVolkswagenVolkswagen is a German automobile manufacturer and is the original and biggest-selling marque of the Volkswagen Group, which now also owns the Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, SEAT, and Škoda marques and the truck manufacturer Scania.Volkswagen means "people's car" in German, where it is...
, literally people's car; brand of automobile - WanderlustWanderlustWanderlust is a strong desire for or impulse to wander or travel and explore the world.-Etymology:The loanword from German language became an English term in 1902 as a reflection of what was then seen as a characteristically German predilection for wandering that may be traced back to German...
, the yearning to travel - Wiener, used pejoratively, signifying a spineless, weak person. In German, the term Würstchen (the diminuitive form of WurstSausageA sausage is a food usually made from ground meat , mixed with salt, herbs, and other spices, although vegetarian sausages are available. The word sausage is derived from Old French saussiche, from the Latin word salsus, meaning salted.Typically, a sausage is formed in a casing traditionally made...
) or Wiener WürstchenVienna sausageA Vienna sausage is a kind of hot dog...
(Vienna sausage) is used in its place. - Wunderkind, literally wonder child; a child prodigyChild prodigyA child prodigy is someone who, at an early age, masters one or more skills far beyond his or her level of maturity. One criterion for classifying prodigies is: a prodigy is a child, typically younger than 18 years old, who is performing at the level of a highly trained adult in a very demanding...
- ZeitgeistZeitgeistZeitgeist is "the spirit of the times" or "the spirit of the age."Zeitgeist is the general cultural, intellectual, ethical, spiritual or political climate within a nation or even specific groups, along with the general ambiance, morals, sociocultural direction, and mood associated with an era.The...
, spirit of the time - ZeppelinZeppelinA Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship pioneered by the German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin in the early 20th century. It was based on designs he had outlined in 1874 and detailed in 1893. His plans were reviewed by committee in 1894 and patented in the United States on 14 March 1899...
, type of rigid airshipRigid airshipA rigid airship is a type of airship in which the envelope retained its shape by the use of an internal structural framework rather than by being forced into shape by the pressure of the lifting gas within the envelope as used in blimps and semi-rigid airships.Rigid airships were produced and...
named after its inventor
German terms common in English academic context
German terms sometimes appear in English academic disciplines, e.g. historyHistory
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
, psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
, philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
, music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
, and the physical science
Physical science
Physical science is an encompassing term for the branches of natural science and science that study non-living systems, in contrast to the life sciences...
s; laypeople in a given field may or may not be familiar with a given German term.
Academia
- AnsatzAnsatzAnsatz is a German noun with several meanings in the English language.It is widely encountered in physics and mathematics literature.Since ansatz is a noun, in German texts the initial a of this word is always capitalised.-Definition:...
, basic approach - Doktorvater, doctoral advisor
- FestschriftFestschriftIn academia, a Festschrift , is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during his or her lifetime. The term, borrowed from German, could be translated as celebration publication or celebratory writing...
, book prepared by colleagues to honor a scholar, often on an important birthday such as the sixtieth. - Leitfaden, guidelines
- MethodenstreitMethodenstreitMethodenstreit is a German term referring to an intellectual controversy or debate over epistemology, research methodology, or the way in which academic inquiry is framed or pursued...
, disagreement on methodology - PrivatdozentPrivatdozentPrivatdozent or Private lecturer is a title conferred in some European university systems, especially in German-speaking countries, for someone who pursues an academic career and holds all formal qualifications to become a tenured university professor...
- Professoriat
Arts
- GesamtkunstwerkGesamtkunstwerkA Gesamtkunstwerk is a work of art that makes use of all or many art forms or strives to do so...
, "the whole of a work of art", also "total work of art" or "complete artwork" - Gestalt (lit. "shape, figure") a word used the same way as "entity" or "thing" in common language. "The Whole is greater than the sum of the parts"
Music
- AlphornAlphornThe alphorn or alpenhorn or alpine horn is a labrophone, consisting of a natural wooden horn of conical bore, having a wooden cup-shaped mouthpiece, used by mountain dwellers in Switzerland and elsewhere...
- AugenmusikEye musicEye music describes graphical features of scores that when performed are unnoticeable by the listener.-Difficulties in defining eye music:...
- CrumhornCrumhornThe crumhorn is a musical instrument of the woodwind family, most commonly used during the Renaissance period. In modern times, there has been a revival of interest in Early Music, and crumhorns are being played again....
, from German Krummhorn - FachFachThe German Fach system is a method of classifying singers, primarily opera singers, according to the range, weight, and color of their voices...
, method of classifying singers, primarily opera singers, by the range, weight, and color of their voices - Flatterzunge Playing technique for wind-instruments (flutter tongue)
- FlugelhornFlugelhornThe flugelhorn is a brass instrument resembling a trumpet but with a wider, conical bore. Some consider it to be a member of the saxhorn family developed by Adolphe Sax ; however, other historians assert that it derives from the valve bugle designed by Michael Saurle , Munich 1832 , thus...
(German spelling: Flügelhorn), a type of brass musical instrument - GlockenspielGlockenspielA glockenspiel is a percussion instrument composed of a set of tuned keys arranged in the fashion of the keyboard of a piano. In this way, it is similar to the xylophone; however, the xylophone's bars are made of wood, while the glockenspiel's are metal plates or tubes, and making it a metallophone...
, a percussion instrumentPercussion instrumentA percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration... - HeldentenorTenorThe tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
, "heroic tenor" - HammerklavierPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, "hammer-keyboard", an archaic term for pianoPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
or the name of a specific kind of piano; most commonly used in English to refer to Beethoven's Hammerklavier SonataPiano Sonata No. 29 (Beethoven)Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 29 in B flat major, Op. 106 is a piano sonata widely considered to be one of the most important works of the composer's third period and among one of the great piano sonatas... - HosenrolleBreeches roleA breeches role is a role in which an actress appears in male clothing .In opera it also refers to any male character that is sung and acted by a female singer...
- KapellmeisterKapellmeisterKapellmeister is a German word designating a person in charge of music-making. The word is a compound, consisting of the roots Kapelle and Meister . The words Kapelle and Meister derive from the Latin: capella and magister...
, "music director" - KatzenjammerKatzenjammerWorbey & Farrell, are a British piano musical comedy duo comprising Steven Worbey and Kevin Farrell. The word Katzenjammer is German, meaning "discordant sound" and is also sometimes used to indicate a general state of depression or bewilderment. It's sometimes used in reference to a hangover...
- KonzertmeisterConcertmasterThe concertmaster/mistress is the spalla or leader, of the first violin section of an orchestra. In the UK, the term commonly used is leader...
- LeitmotifLeitmotifA leitmotif , sometimes written leit-motif, is a musical term , referring to a recurring theme, associated with a particular person, place, or idea. It is closely related to the musical idea of idée fixe...
(German spelling: Leitmotiv) a musical phrase that associates with a specific person, thing, or idea - LiedLiedis a German word literally meaning "song", usually used to describe romantic songs setting German poems of reasonably high literary aspirations, especially during the nineteenth century, beginning with Carl Loewe, Heinrich Marschner, and Franz Schubert and culminating with Hugo Wolf...
, "song"; specifically in English, "art song" - Lieder ohne Worte, "songs without words"
- Liederkranz, (originally male) singing club
- LiedermacherSinger-songwriterSinger-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
, Singer-songwriter - MeistersingerMeistersingerA Meistersinger was a member of a German guild for lyric poetry, composition and unaccompanied art song of the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries. The Meistersingers were drawn from middle class males for the most part.-Guilds:...
, Master-singer - Mensurstrich
- MinnesangMinnesangMinnesang was the tradition of lyric and song writing in Germany which flourished in the 12th century and continued into the 14th century. People who wrote and performed Minnesang are known as Minnesingers . The name derives from the word minne, Middle High German for love which was their main...
, medieval love poetry - OhrwurmEarwormEarworm, a loan translation of the German Ohrwurm, is a portion of a song or other music that repeats compulsively within one's mind, put colloquially as "music being stuck in one's head."...
- RauschpfeifeRauschpfeifeThe rauschpfeife is a musical instrument of the woodwind family, originally popular in Europe in the mid-16th Century. In common with the crumhorn and cornamuse, it is a wooden double-reed instrument with the reed enclosed in a windcap...
- SchlagerSchlagerSchlager music is a style of popular music prevalent in Central and Northern Europe and the Balkans and also in France and Poland. In Portugal, it was adapted and became pimba music...
, "a hit" (German "schlagen", to hit or beat) - SchuhplattlerSchuhplattlerThe Schuhplattler is a traditional Austro-Bavarian folk dance evolved from the Ländler.-Origins:The origins of this social dance are found in an early courtship display...
, a regional dance from Upper BavariaUpper BavariaUpper Bavaria is one of the seven administrative regions of Bavaria, Germany.- Geography :Upper Bavaria is located in the southern portion of Bavaria, and is centered around the city of Munich. It is subdivided into four regions : Ingolstadt, Munich, Bayerisches Oberland , and Südostoberbayern...
and AustriaAustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the... - SingspielSingspielA Singspiel is a form of German-language music drama, now regarded as a genre of opera...
, German musical drama with spoken dialogue - SitzprobeSitzprobeSitzprobe is a term used in opera and musical theatre to describe a seated rehearsal where the singers sing with the orchestra, focusing attention on integrating the two groups. It is often the first rehearsal where the orchestra and singers rehearse together...
, rehearsal of a musical stage work where singers are sitting and without costumes - SprechgesangSprechgesangSprechgesang and Sprechstimme are musical terms used to refer to an expressionist vocal technique between singing and speaking. Though sometimes used interchangeably, sprechgesang is a term directly related to the operatic recitative manner of singing , whereas sprechstimme is...
, form of musical delivery between speech and singing - StrohbassVocal fry registerThe vocal fry register , is the lowest vocal register and is produced through a loose glottal closure which will permit air to bubble through slowly with a popping or rattling sound of a very low frequency...
- Sturm und DrangSturm und DrangSturm und Drang is a proto-Romantic movement in German literature and music taking place from the late 1760s through the early 1780s, in which individual subjectivity and, in particular, extremes of emotion were given free expression in reaction to the perceived constraints of rationalism...
, "storm and stress", a brief aesthetic movement in German literature, just before Weimar ClassicismWeimar ClassicismWeimar Classicism is a cultural and literary movement of Europe. Followers attempted to establish a new humanism by synthesizing Romantic, classical and Enlightenment ideas... - UrtextUrtext editionAn urtext edition of a work of classical music is a printed version intended to reproduce the original intention of the composer as exactly as possible, without any added or changed material...
, "original text (of the composer)" - VolksmusikVolksmusikVolksmusik is the common umbrella designation of a number of related styles of traditional music from the Alpine regions of Germany, Austria, Switzerland and South Tyrol...
, traditional German music - WalzerWalzerWalzer may refer to:* The German name for the waltz** Mephisto-Waltzer, 4 waltzes composed by Franz Liszt- Family names :* Anton Walzer , a German victim of the Berlin Wall...
(Waltz) - ZukunftsmusikMusic of the Future"Music of the Future" is the title of an essay by Richard Wagner, first published in French translation in 1860 as "La musique de l'avenir" and published in the original German in 1861...
Meanings of German band names
- Zweizimmerwohnung = 2 room apartment (correct spelling: Zweizimmerwohnung)
- Alter Der RuineAlter Der RuineAlter Der Ruine is a power noise group from Tucson, Arizona. After self-releasing their first album The Ruine Process in August 2006 the band began playing shows across the southwestern United States and Mexico.In 2007 the group was signed to Sistinas Music, expanded to four members and produced...
= "Age of the Ruin" - BlutEngelBlutengelBlutengel is a German Darkwave musical group. It was formed by singer Chris Pohl after he had to leave Seelenkrank due to contractual and legal problems...
= "Blood Angel" - Böhse OnkelzBöhse OnkelzThe Böhse Onkelz were a German rock group that existed from 1980 to 2005. Although being ignored by the mass media for their controversial past, since Viva los tioz in 1998 almost every album reached number one on the German album charts. According to record certifications and additional sources...
= this is the correct but idiosyncratic spelling of the name of the German band (the correct plural would be "Onkel" without the z or an s, and "böse" for the correct German word for 'evil') "evil uncles," a term used in German as a euphemism for child molesters. The peculiar spelling of the band is intended to "harden" the appearance of the name (h in this context amplifies the ö; z is pronounced ts in German, and sounds sharper than s). The umlaut over the o in Böhse is not a heavy metal umlautHeavy metal umlautA metal umlaut is a diaeresis that is sometimes used gratuitously or decoratively over letters in the names of hard rock or heavy metal bands—for example those of Mötley Crüe and Motörhead...
. - DeichkindDeichkindDeichkind is a Hip-Hop / Electro band formed in Hamburg, Germany, in 1997. Deichkind's characteristic lyrics typically consist of irony and humor. In 2005, Deichkind represented Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in the Bundesvision Song Contest, finishing 14th of the 16 entries. The band's single Electric...
= dike (or levee) child - Deutsch-Amerikanische FreundschaftDeutsch-Amerikanische FreundschaftDeutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft or D.A.F. is an influential German electropunk/NDW band from Düsseldorf, formed in 1978 featuring Gabriel "Gabi" Delgado-López , Robert Görl , Kurt "Pyrolator" Dahlke , Michael Kemner and Wolfgang Spelmans...
(or D.A.F.) = German-American Friendship - Die ÄrzteDie ÄrzteDie Ärzte is a punk band from Berlin. Die Ärzte are one of the best-known German punk rock bands and have released over 20 albums. The band consists of guitarist Farin Urlaub, drummer Bela B. and bass player Rodrigo González...
= the (medical) doctors, a German Punkrock band. - Die Fantastischen VierDie Fantastischen VierDie Fantastischen Vier , also known as Fanta 4, is a German hip hop group from Stuttgart, Germany. The members are Michael Bernd Schmidt alias Smudo, Andreas Rieke alias And.Ypsilon, Thomas Dürr alias Hausmeister Thomas D and Michael 'Michi' Beck alias Dee Jot Hausmarke...
= the fantastic four - Die Roten PunkteDie Roten PunkteDie Roten Punkte is a 'faux-German' indie/pop/rock band consisting of brother and sister, Otto Rot and Astrid Rot. The band has released two studio albums and are currently recording their third, Kunst Rock .-Band members:...
= The Red Dots - Die SterneDie SterneDie Sterne is a two/three/four-piece indie pop band, from Hamburg, Germany. They were formed in 1992 and have released eight studio albums, the most recent in 2010.-Members:...
= the stars (celestial body) - Die Toten HosenDie Toten HosenDie Toten Hosen is a German punk band from Düsseldorf. They have enjoyed decades-long mass appeal in Germany.The band's name literally means "The Dead Pants" in English, although the phrase "tote Hose" is a German expression meaning "nothing going on" or "boring"...
= literally the dead trousers. A slang expression for a boring place to be (phrase: "Hier ist total tote Hose.") (commonly used in the northern parts of Germany), it can also refer to impotence. - Dschinghis Khan = The German spelling of Genghis KhanGenghis KhanGenghis Khan , born Temujin and occasionally known by his temple name Taizu , was the founder and Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his death....
- Einstürzende NeubautenEinstürzende NeubautenEinstürzende Neubauten is a German post-industrial band, originally from West Berlin, formed in 1980. The group currently comprises Blixa Bargeld , Alexander Hacke , N.U...
= "collapsing new buildings". For the band this evokes the image of buildings built during the post-war era, which were very hastily erected, hence supposedly prone to collapse. - EisbrecherEisbrecherEisbrecher is a German Neue Deutsche Härte band that consists primarily of Alexander Wesselsky and Noel Pix , with live support from Jürgen Plangger , Domonik Palmer , Achim Färber . In the United States and Canada, their record label is currently Metropolis Records...
= Ice breaker - EisregenEisregenEisregen is a German death metal / black metal band which formed in 1995. The members are from Tambach-Dietharz, a village in Thuringia.- History :In English, Eisregen translates to "Ice Rain"...
= "Ice rain", i. e., freezing rainFreezing rainFreezing rain is the name given to rain that falls when surface temperatures are below freezing. The raindrops become supercooled while passing through a sub-freezing layer of air, many hundred feet , just above the surface, and then freeze upon impact with any object they encounter. The resulting... - Erste Allgemeine VerunsicherungErste Allgemeine VerunsicherungThe EAV is an Austrian band that got together in 1977....
= "First Public/General Uncertainty/Un-Insurance (better: the first undermining of the public sense of security)", often abbreviated "EAV". Band name was inspired by the real existing insurance company "Erste Allgemeine Versicherungs-AG" (First General Insurance Inc.) - FeindflugFeindflug' , is a controversial German electro-industrial band founded in 1995. Translated, the name means "attack-raid" or literally "foe-flight" ; it corresponds in military use to the French/English word "sortie".- Style and themes :...
= "combat mission" (general term for any flight with enemy contact, as opposed to civilian, recon or training flights) - FehlfarbenFehlfarbenFehlfarben is a German post-punk band from Düsseldorf, Germany. The band name is from a German printing term referring to erroneous colors in prints: singer Peter Hein was in this line of work at Xerox while in the band...
= An elder trademark for cheap cigars, but also the term for stamps and furs in the wrong colour, as well the colours in a card play, which are not trump - Fettes BrotFettes BrotFettes Brot is a German hip hop group founded in 1992.Fettes Brot is German for fat bread. "Fett" is a German slang term for "excellent" and brot is slang for "hash". The band took the name from a fan who called them "Fettes Brot" after an early gig, which was probably meant as a compliment, but...
= literally fat bread, but "fett" is also a slang expression for cool (like English phat, which may have inspired it) - Fluchtweg = "way of escape"
- Fräulein WunderFräulein WunderFräulein Wunder is a German Pop Rock band from Friedberg, Hesse.- Band history :The four band members met in 2006 at a local hobby cellar their music idols regularly go to. In 2007, they wrote their first songs, and later, followed up with their first appearances...
= "Miss Miracle", an allusion to the German expression :de:Fräuleinwunder, a phenomenon in 1950s Germany referring to modern, attractive and self-assured young women - FreundeskreisFreundeskreisFreundeskreis also known as FK, was a German hip hop group from Stuttgart, whose songs were in German but also in English, French and Esperanto. The members were Max Herre, Don Philippe and DJ Friction....
= circle of friends - Geschmeido = A distortion of the term Geschmeide or geschmeidig, just meaning "jewellery" or "supple"
- JuliJuli (band)Juli a German alternative pop band from Gießen, Hesse, consisting of singer Eva Briegel, guitarists Jonas Pfetzing and Simon Triebel, bassist Andreas "Dedi" Herde and drummer Marcel Römer...
= July - KettcarKettcar- History :Former German punk rock great Marcus Wiebusch of ...But Alive and bass player Reimer Bustorff, who were both members of ska band Rantanplan, decided in 2001 to break away from punk's and ska's traditions of aggressive, political lyrics in favor of developing a more emotional, laid-back...
= the trademark name of a line of toy cars propelled by pedals and a chain. The name is a play on the name of the firm that produces the cars, KettlerKettlerKettler is a German company based in Ense-Parsit. The company produces bicycles, riding toys, leisure gear, patio furniture and exercise equipment.-External links:***...
, as well as the word for "chain", Kette. - Klee = not only the painter Paul KleePaul KleePaul Klee was born in Münchenbuchsee, Switzerland, and is considered both a German and a Swiss painter. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. He was, as well, a student of orientalism...
, but also German for clover. - KMFDMKMFDMKMFDM is an industrial band led by German multi-instrumentalist Sascha Konietzko, who founded the group in 1984 as a performance art project...
= "Keine Mehrheit Für Das Mitleid" [sic] (literally "no majority for the pity," which is a grammatically incorrect rearrangement of "Kein Mitleid für die Mehrheit" or "no pity for the masses.") - KraftwerkKraftwerkKraftwerk is an influential electronic music band from Düsseldorf, Germany. The group was formed by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider in 1970, and was fronted by them until Schneider's departure in 2008...
= power plant - KreidlerKreidlerKreidler was a German manufacturer of small motorcycles and mopeds, based in Kornwestheim, between Ludwigsburg and Stuttgart. The company was founded in 1903 as "Kreidlers Metall- und Drahtwerke" by Anton Kreidler and started to build motorcycles in 1951. In 1959 one third of all German...
= an elder moped trademark - Massive TöneMassive TöneMassive Töne is one of the oldest and most popular German Hip hop groups, founded in 1991 in Stuttgart.The four founding members, Showi , Ju , Wasi and DJ 5ter Ton all originated in Stuttgart's hip hop scene and modeled themselves at first on the American and French hip hop groups like...
= massive sounds - Nachtmahr = old word for "nightmare" or a legendary creature
- Neu!Neu!Neu! was a German band formed by Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother after their split from Kraftwerk in the early 1970s...
= new! - Panzer AGPanzer AGPanzer AG is the name of an aggrotech/industrial rock side-project by Norwegian Andy LaPlegua, the founder of futurepop band Icon of Coil. Formed in 2004, Panzer AG's sound combines Power noise, Industrial, Trance, Rock and other genres to create a caustic but danceable form of music.-History:After...
= "Tank PLC" - PanikPanik (band)Panik is a German rock band consisting of two members from Neumünster that was established in Hamburg in 2007 under the name Nevada Tan. Nevada Tan consisted of six members: David Bonk , Timo "T:Mo" Sonnenschein , Christian Linke , Frank "Franky" Ziegler , Jan Werner , and Juri Schewe...
= "panic", a German metal band - RammsteinRammsteinRammstein is a German Neue Deutsche Härte band from Berlin, formed in 1994. The band consists of members Till Lindemann , Richard Z. Kruspe , Paul H. Landers , Oliver "Ollie" Riedel , Christoph "Doom" Schneider and Christian "Flake" Lorenz...
= "ramming stone" (literal) or "battering ram" (figurative), an intentional misspelling of Ramstein and the USAF Ramstein Air Base, the location of the Ramstein airshow disasterRamstein airshow disasterThe Ramstein airshow disaster is the second-deadliest airshow incident . It took place in front of about 300,000 people on August 28 1988, in Ramstein, West Germany, near the city of Kaiserslautern at the US Ramstein Air Base airshow Flugtag '88.Aircraft of the Italian Air Force display team...
. Some translate it as "[stone] hammerhead" - RosenstolzRosenstolzRosenstolz is a German music band from Berlin. Their music combines several styles including rock, pop and ballads. AnNa R. and Peter Plate form the duo. They had their breakthrough in 1998 with the song Herzensschöner...
= "pride of roses". This can also be understood as "proud like roses" alluding to symbolism of the rose signifying pride - RotersandRotersandRotersand is a German electronic music act, formed in September 2002 by musician/producer Gun and singer Rascal with dance music producer/DJ Krischan J.E. Wesenberg joining them shortly after...
= literally "red sand", named after a famous lighthouseLighthouseA lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or, in older times, from a fire, and used as an aid to navigation for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways....
in the North SeaNorth SeaIn the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively... - Schleimkeim = slime germ, German punk band
- SilbermondSilbermondSilbermond is a German rock band from Bautzen, Saxony. The band consists of Stefanie Kloß, Andreas Nowak, Johannes and Thomas Stolle.-Biography:...
= literally silver moon, German popband - Tokio HotelTokio HotelTokio Hotel is a pop rock band from Germany, founded in 2001 by singer Bill Kaulitz, guitarist Tom Kaulitz, drummer Gustav Schäfer and bassist Georg Listing...
= literally "Tokyo Hotel", German rock band - UnheiligUnheiligUnheilig is a German Neue Deutsche Härte band with various pop and electronic influences. The band founded in 2000 and now consists of principally Der Graf , with his live musicians Licky, Henning Verlage and Potti.-Early years 1999–2009:In 1999, together with Grant Stevens Unheilig (German for...
= literally "unholy", a band representing the "Neue Deutsche Härte" - Virginia Jetzt!Virginia Jetzt!Virginia Jetzt! is a German Indie-Pop band founded in the small town of Elsterwerda in Brandenburg in 1999; the quartet dissolved in October 2010....
= Virginia now! - Wir sind HeldenWir sind HeldenWir sind Helden is a German Alternative Rock band from Berlin, established in 2001 in Hamburg. The quartet is composed of lead singer Judith Holofernes and musicians Pola Roy, Mark Tavassol, and Jean-Michel Tourette. The group's style has often been considered similar to that of the Neue Deutsche...
= "We are heroes" - Die Zimmermänner = The former Ede & Die Zimmermänner, referring to the television personality Eduard Zimmermann, the initiator and former talking head of the TV police search programme Aktenzeichen XY … ungelöst in the German ZDF channel. A Zimmermann is also a carpenter by profession.
Genres
- KrautrockKrautrockKrautrock is a generic name for the experimental music scenes that appeared in Germany in the late 1960s and gained popularity throughout the 1970s, especially in Britain. The term is a result of the English-speaking world's reception of the music at the time and not a reference to any one...
: German-like English name for a variety of German rockGerman rockAlthough German rock music didn't come into its own until the late 1960s, it spawned many innovative and influential bands spanning genres such as krautrock, New Wave, heavy metal, punk, and industrial.... - Neue Deutsche HärteNeue Deutsche HärteNeue Deutsche Härte is a genre of industrial metal. The term was invented by the German music press after the release of the debut album Herzeleid by Rammstein....
(NDH): "New German Hardness"; a genre of German rockGerman rockAlthough German rock music didn't come into its own until the late 1960s, it spawned many innovative and influential bands spanning genres such as krautrock, New Wave, heavy metal, punk, and industrial....
that mixes traditional hard rock with dance-like keyboard parts. Recently it has begun to appear in English. - Neue Deutsche WelleNeue Deutsche WelleNeue Deutsche Welle is a genre of German music originally derived from punk rock and New Wave music...
(NDW): "New German Wave". A genre of German musicMusic of GermanyForms of German-language music include Neue Deutsche Welle , Krautrock, Hamburger Schule, Volksmusik, Classical, German hip hop, trance, Schlager, Neue Deutsche Härte and diverse varieties of folk music, such as Waltz and Medieval metal....
originally derived from punk rockPunk rockPunk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
and New Wave musicNew Wave musicNew Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
. - Romantische OperRomantische OperRomantische Oper was a genre of early nineteenth-century German opera, developed not from the German Singspiel of the eighteenth-century but from the opéras comiques of the French Revolution...
: genre of early nineteenth-century German opera
Selected works in classical music
- Johann Sebastian BachJohann Sebastian BachJohann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
's Das wohltemperierte Klavier (The Well-Tempered ClavierThe Well-Tempered ClavierThe Well-Tempered Clavier , BWV 846–893, is a collection of solo keyboard music composed by Johann Sebastian Bach...
); Jesus bleibet meine Freude (Jesu, Joy of Man's DesiringJesu, Joy of Man's DesiringJesu, Joy of Man's Desiring is the most common English title of the 10th movement of the cantata Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147 composed by Johann Sebastian Bach. A transcription by the English pianist Myra Hess was published in 1926 for piano solo and in 1934 for piano duet...
) - BrahmsJohannes BrahmsJohannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
's SchicksalsliedSchicksalsliedThe Schicksalslied is a short, powerful work for chorus and orchestra composed by Johannes Brahms between 1868 and 1871, his Opus 54. The text is that of Friedrich Hölderlin's poem Hyperions Schicksalslied, originally part of the novel Hyperion...
(Song of Destiny) - KreislerFritz KreislerFriedrich "Fritz" Kreisler was an Austrian-born violinist and composer. One of the most famous violin masters of his or any other day, he was known for his sweet tone and expressive phrasing. Like many great violinists of his generation, he produced a characteristic sound which was immediately...
's Liebesleid (Pain of Love), Liebesfreud (Joy of Love) - LisztFranz LisztFranz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
's LiebesträumeLiebesträumeLiebesträume , is a set of three solo piano works by Franz Liszt, published in 1850. Liszt called each of the three pieces Liebesträume, but often they are referred to incorrectly in the singular as Liebestraum...
(Dreams of Love) - MozartWolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
's Eine kleine NachtmusikEine kleine NachtmusikThe Serenade No. 13 for strings in G major, K. 525 was written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1787. The work is more commonly known by the title Eine kleine Nachtmusik. The German title means "a little serenade", though it is often rendered more literally but less accurately as "a little night music"...
(A Little Serenade); Die ZauberflöteThe Magic FluteThe Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue....
(The Magic Flute) - Gustav MahlerGustav MahlerGustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...
's KindertotenliederKindertotenliederKindertotenlieder is a song cycle for voice and orchestra by Gustav Mahler...
(Songs on Dead Children) - SchubertFranz SchubertFranz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
's WinterreiseWinterreiseWinterreise is a song cycle for voice and piano by Franz Schubert , a setting of 24 poems by Wilhelm Müller. It is the second of Schubert's two great song cycles on Müller's poems, the earlier being Die schöne Müllerin...
(Winter Journey) - SchumannRobert SchumannRobert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
's DichterliebeDichterliebeDichterliebe, 'The Poet's Love' , is the best-known song cycle of Robert Schumann . The texts for the 16 songs come from the Lyrisches Intermezzo of Heinrich Heine, composed 1822–1823, published as part of the poet's Das Buch der Lieder. Following the song-cycles of Franz Schubert , those of...
(The Poet's Love) - Richard StraussRichard StraussRichard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
's Der RosenkavalierDer RosenkavalierDer Rosenkavalier is a comic opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to an original German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It is loosely adapted from the novel Les amours du chevalier de Faublas by Louvet de Couvrai and Molière’s comedy Monsieur de Pourceaugnac...
(Cavalier of the Rose); Also sprach ZarathustraAlso sprach Zarathustra (Richard Strauss)Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30 is a tone poem by Richard Strauss, composed in 1896 and inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophical treatise of the same name. The composer conducted its first performance on 27 November 1896 in Frankfurt...
(Thus Spoke Zarathustra); "Vier letzte LiederFour Last SongsThe Four Last Songs for soprano and orchestra were the final completed works of Richard Strauss, composed in 1948 when the composer was 84. Strauss did not live to hear the premiere, given at the Royal Albert Hall in London on 22 May 1950 by the soprano Kirsten Flagstad accompanied by the...
" (Four last songs) - Johann Strauss IIJohann Strauss IIJohann Strauss II , also known as Johann Baptist Strauss or Johann Strauss, Jr., the Younger, or the Son , was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas...
's Die FledermausDie FledermausDie Fledermaus is an operetta composed by Johann Strauss II to a German libretto by Karl Haffner and Richard Genée.- Literary sources :...
(The Bat); An der schönen blauen DonauThe Blue DanubeThe Blue Danube is the common English title of An der schönen blauen Donau, Op. 314 , a waltz by the Austrian composer Johann Strauss II, composed in 1866...
(On The Beautiful Blue Danube) - Richard WagnerRichard WagnerWilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
's Die WalküreDie WalküreDie Walküre , WWV 86B, is the second of the four operas that form the cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen , by Richard Wagner...
(The Valkyrie); GötterdämmerungGötterdämmerungis the last in Richard Wagner's cycle of four operas titled Der Ring des Nibelungen...
(Twilight of the Gods); both from his opera cycle "Der Ring des NibelungenDer Ring des NibelungenDer Ring des Nibelungen is a cycle of four epic operas by the German composer Richard Wagner . The works are based loosely on characters from the Norse sagas and the Nibelungenlied...
" (The Ring of the Nibelung)
Modern songs
- 99 Luftballons99 Luftballons"99 Luftballons" is a protest song by the German pop-rock band Nena from their 1983 self-titled album. Originally sung in German, it was later re-recorded in English as "99 Red Balloons" for their album 99 Luftballons in 1984...
: "99 Balloons" (English title: "99 Red Balloons") by NenaNenaGabriele Susanne Kerner , better known by her stage name Nena, is a German singer and actress. She rose to international fame in 1983 with the New German Wave song "99 Luftballons". In 1984, she re-recorded this song in English as "99 Red Balloons". Nena was also the name of the band with whom she...
Biology
- AhnenreiheAhnentafelAn ahnentafel or ahnenreihe is a genealogical numbering system for listing a person's direct ancestors in a fixed sequence of ascent...
- AhnentafelAhnentafelAn ahnentafel or ahnenreihe is a genealogical numbering system for listing a person's direct ancestors in a fixed sequence of ascent...
- Anlage
- AurochsAurochsThe aurochs , the ancestor of domestic cattle, were a type of large wild cattle which inhabited Europe, Asia and North Africa, but is now extinct; it survived in Europe until 1627....
- Bauplan, body plan of animals
- BereitschaftspotentialBereitschaftspotentialIn neurology, the Bereitschaftspotential or BP , also called the pre-motor potential or readiness potential , is a measure of activity in the motor cortex of the brain leading up to voluntary muscle movement. The BP is a manifestation of cortical contribution to the pre-motor planning of volitional...
- Edelweiss
- EinkornEinkorn wheatthumbnail|150px|left|Wild einkorn, Karadag, central TurkeyEinkorn wheat can refer either to the wild species of wheat, Triticum boeoticum , or to the domesticated form, Triticum monococcum...
- KrummholzKrummholzKrummholz or Krumholtz formation — also called Knieholz — is a particular feature of subarctic and subalpine tree line landscapes. Continual exposure to fierce, freezing winds causes vegetation to become stunted and deformed...
, crooked or bent wood due to growth conditions of trees and bushes - LagerstätteLagerstätteA Lagerstätte is a sedimentary deposit that exhibits extraordinary fossil richness or completeness.Palaeontologists distinguish two kinds....
, repository; sedimentary deposit rich in fossils - MolosserMolosserMolosser is a category of large, solidly-built dog that includes several breeds, probably all descended from the same root stock. The name derives from Molossia, a subregion of ancient Epirus, ancient Greece, where the large shepherd dog was known as the Molossus.The proper noun "Mastiff", however,...
, a type of dog, literally Molossian, from MolossusMolossus (dog)-History:This ancient extinct breed of dog is commonly considered to be the ancestor of today's Mastiff-type dogs and of many other modern breeds. Mastiff-type dogs are often referred to as Molossus dogs or Molossers...
, the name of an ancient dog breed which the modern molossers descend from - SchreckstoffSchreckstoffIn 1938, the Austrian ethologist Karl von Frisch made his first report on the existence of the chemical alarm signal known as Schreckstoff in minnows. An alarm signal is a response produced by an individual, the “sender,” reacting to a hazard that warns other animals, the receivers, that there is...
, a chemical alarm signal emitted by fish - SpitzenkörperSpitzenkörperThe Spitzenkörper is a structure found in fungal hyphae which is the organizing center for hyphal growth and morphogenesis. It consists of many small vesicles and is present in growing hyphal tips, during spore germination and where branch formation occurs. Its position in the hyphal tip correlates...
, structure important in hyphal growth - UnkenreflexUnkenreflexThe unken reflex is a passive defense posture adopted by toads, frogs and salamanders. When threatened by predators, they twist their bodies, or arch their backs and limbs to expose brightly-colored aposematic skin...
- WaldsterbenForest diebackForest dieback is a condition in trees or woody plants in which peripheral parts are killed, either by parasites or due to conditions like acid rain and drought....
- Zeitgeber (chronobiology)ZeitgeberZeitgeber is any exogenous cue that synchronizes an organism's endogenous time-keeping system to the earth's 24-hour light/dark cycle. The strongest zeitgeber, for both plants and animals, is light...
, external clue that helps to synchronize the internal body clock - Zugunruhe (ornithology)ZugunruheZugunruhe is a German compound word consisting of Zug and Unruhe .In ethology it describes anxious behavior in migratory animals, especially in birds. When these animals are enclosed, such as in an Emlen funnel, zugunruhe serves to study the seasonal cycles of the migratory syndrome...
, pre-migration anxiety in birds and other migratory animals
Chess
- AllumwandlungAllumwandlungAllumwandlung is a chess problem where, at some stage in the solution, the pawn is promoted variously to a knight, bishop, rook and queen....
- Blitz chess, from German Blitzschach, literally "lightning chess", also known as Fast chess
- Fingerfehler: slip of the finger
- Kibitz, from German Kiebitz (see :de:Kiebitz (Spielbeobachter)), a spectator making comments on the game that can be heard by the players
- LuftLuftLuft, the German word for "air" , is used by some chess writers and commentators to denote a space left by a pawn move into which a castled king may move, especially such a space made with the intention of avoiding a back rank checkmate. A move leaving such a space is often said to "give the king...
- Patzer
- ZeitnotTime troubleIn chess played with a time control, time trouble, time pressure, or its German translation Zeitnot, is the situation where a player has little time to complete the required moves. When forced to play quickly, the probability of making blunders is increased, so handling the clock is an important...
- ZugzwangZugzwangZugzwang is a term usually used in chess which also applies to various other games. The term finds its formal definition in combinatorial game theory, and it describes a situation where one player is put at a disadvantage because he has to make a move when he would prefer to pass and make no move...
- Zwischenschach
- ZwischenzugZwischenzugThe zwischenzug is a chess tactic in which a player, instead of playing the expected move first interpolates another move, posing an immediate threat that the opponent must answer, then plays the expected move...
Economics
- FreigeldFreigeldIn the theory of Freiwirtschaft, Freigeld is a monetary unit proposed by Silvio Gesell.- Properties :Freigeld has several special properties:...
- FreiwirtschaftFreiwirtschaftis an economic idea founded by Silvio Gesell in 1916. He called it . In 1932, a group of Swiss businessmen used his ideas to found WIR....
- K – In economics, the letter K –from the German word "Kapital"– is used to denote CapitalCapital (economics)In economics, capital, capital goods, or real capital refers to already-produced durable goods used in production of goods or services. The capital goods are not significantly consumed, though they may depreciate in the production process...
- LumpenproletariatLumpenproletariatLumpenproletariat, a collective term from Lumpenproletarier , was first defined by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in The German Ideology and later elaborated on in other works by Marx...
- MittelstandMittelstandMittelstand refers to small and medium-sized enterprises in German-speaking countries, especially in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Economic and business historians have been increasingly giving Mittelstand companies more and more credit for Germany's economic growth in the beginning of the 20th...
- TaktTakt timeTakt time, derived from the German word Taktzeit which translates to cycle time, sets the pace for industrial manufacturing lines. For example, in automobile manufacturing, cars are assembled on a line, and are moved on to the next station after a certain time - the takt time...
- WirtschaftswunderWirtschaftswunderThe term describes the rapid reconstruction and development of the economies of West Germany and Austria after World War II . The expression was used by The Times in 1950...
Geography
- HinterlandHinterlandThe hinterland is the land or district behind a coast or the shoreline of a river. Specifically, by the doctrine of the hinterland, the word is applied to the inland region lying behind a port, claimed by the state that owns the coast. The area from which products are delivered to a port for...
- InselbergMonadnockA monadnock or inselberg is an isolated rock hill, knob, ridge, or small mountain that rises abruptly from a gently sloping or virtually level surrounding plain...
- MitteleuropaMitteleuropaMitteleuropa is the German term equal to Central Europe. The word has political, geographic and cultural meaning. While it describes a geographical location, it also is the word denoting a political concept of a German-dominated and exploited Central European union that was put into motion during...
- ThalwegThalwegThalweg in geography and fluvial geomorphology signifies the deepest continuous inline within a valley or watercourse system.-Hydrology:In hydrological and fluvial landforms, the thalweg is a line drawn to join the lowest points along the entire length of a stream bed or valley in its downward...
(written "Talweg" in Germany today)
Geology
- BergschrundBergschrundA bergschrund is a crevasse that forms where the moving glacier ice separates from the stagnant ice above. It is often a serious obstacle for mountaineers, who sometimes abbreviate "bergschrund" to "schrund"....
- DreikanterDreikanterA Dreikanter is a type of ventifact that typically forms in desert or periglacial environments due to the abrasive action of blowing sand.Dreikanters exhibit a characteristic three-faced pyramidal shape. The word Dreikanter is a German word meaning "a three-sider."right|thumb|300px| Unusually large...
- FirnFirnFirn is partially-compacted névé, a type of snow that has been left over from past seasons and has been recrystallized into a substance denser than névé. It is ice that is at an intermediate stage between snow and glacial ice...
- GneissGneissGneiss is a common and widely distributed type of rock formed by high-grade regional metamorphic processes from pre-existing formations that were originally either igneous or sedimentary rocks.-Etymology:...
(German Gneis) - GrabenGrabenIn geology, a graben is a depressed block of land bordered by parallel faults. Graben is German for ditch. Graben is used for both the singular and plural....
- Horst
- IcebergIcebergAn iceberg is a large piece of ice from freshwater that has broken off from a snow-formed glacier or ice shelf and is floating in open water. It may subsequently become frozen into pack ice...
(German Eisberg) - KarstKARSTKilometer-square Area Radio Synthesis Telescope is a Chinese telescope project to which FAST is a forerunner. KARST is a set of large spherical reflectors on karst landforms, which are bowlshaped limestone sinkholes named after the Kras region in Slovenia and Northern Italy. It will consist of...
- LoessLoessLoess is an aeolian sediment formed by the accumulation of wind-blown silt, typically in the 20–50 micrometre size range, twenty percent or less clay and the balance equal parts sand and silt that are loosely cemented by calcium carbonate...
- Randkluft
Minerals including:
- FeldsparFeldsparFeldspars are a group of rock-forming tectosilicate minerals which make up as much as 60% of the Earth's crust....
(German Feldspat) - HornblendeHornblendeHornblende is a complex inosilicate series of minerals .It is not a recognized mineral in its own right, but the name is used as a general or field term, to refer to a dark amphibole....
- MeerschaumMeerschaumMeerschaum , also sepiolite, is a soft white mineral sometimes found floating on the Black Sea, and rather suggestive of sea-foam, whence the German origin of the name, as well as the French name for the same substance, écume de mer.-Overview:...
- QuartzQuartzQuartz is the second-most-abundant mineral in the Earth's continental crust, after feldspar. It is made up of a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall formula SiO2. There are many different varieties of quartz,...
(German Quarz)
Other historical periods
- AlltagsgeschichteAlltagsgeschichteAlltagsgeschichte is a form of microhistory that was particularly prevalent amongst German historians during the 1980s. It was founded by historians Alf Luedtke and Hans Medick....
, literally 'everyday history', a type of microhistoryMicrohistoryMicrohistory is the intensive historical investigation of a well defined smaller unit of research... - AufklarungAge of EnlightenmentThe Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...
, in German: Aufklärung, "enlightenment", short for Zeitalter der Aufklärung, "age of enlightenment" - BiedermeierBiedermeierIn Central Europe, the Biedermeier era refers to the middle-class sensibilities of the historical period between 1815, the year of the Congress of Vienna at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, and 1848, the year of the European revolutions...
, era in early 19th century GermanyGermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate... - DiktatDiktatA diktat is a harsh penalty or settlement imposed upon a defeated party by the victor, or a dogmatic decree. Historically, it was particularly used in Germany to refer to the Treaty of Versailles....
- GründerzeitGründerzeit' refers to the economic phase in 19th century Germany and Austria before the great stock market crash of 1873. At this time in Central Europe the age of industrialisation was taking place, whose beginnings were found in the 1840s...
, the period in German history of great artistic and economic developments - JunkerJunkerA Junker was a member of the landed nobility of Prussia and eastern Germany. These families were mostly part of the German Uradel and carried on the colonization and Christianization of the northeastern European territories during the medieval Ostsiedlung. The abbreviation of Junker is Jkr...
- KaiserKaiserKaiser is the German title meaning "Emperor", with Kaiserin being the female equivalent, "Empress". Like the Russian Czar it is directly derived from the Latin Emperors' title of Caesar, which in turn is derived from the personal name of a branch of the gens Julia, to which Gaius Julius Caesar,...
, "emperor" (derived from the title "CaesarCaesar (title)Caesar is a title of imperial character. It derives from the cognomen of Julius Caesar, the Roman dictator...
") - KulturgeschichteCultural historyThe term cultural history refers both to an academic discipline and to its subject matter.Cultural history, as a discipline, at least in its common definition since the 1970s, often combines the approaches of anthropology and history to look at popular cultural traditions and cultural...
- KulturkampfKulturkampfThe German term refers to German policies in relation to secularity and the influence of the Roman Catholic Church, enacted from 1871 to 1878 by the Prime Minister of Prussia, Otto von Bismarck. The Kulturkampf did not extend to the other German states such as Bavaria...
, literally the 'struggle for culture'; Bismarck's campaign for secularitySecularitySecularity is the state of being separate from religion.For instance, eating and bathing may be regarded as examples of secular activities, because there may not be anything inherently religious about them...
which mostly went against Catholics in the newly formed German state, ostensibly a result of Bismarck's suspicion of Catholic loyalty - LandfluchtLandfluchtLandflucht , also known as rural exodus, refers to the mass migration of peasants into the cities that occurred in Germany in the late 19th century.-Background:...
- NordpolitikNordpolitikNordpolitik was the signature foreign policy of South Korean president Roh Tae-woo. Named in 1983 by then-Foreign Minister Lee Beom Suk but not formally announced until the run-up to the 1988 Seoul Olympics, the policy guided South Korean efforts to reach out to the traditional allies of North...
- OstfluchtOstfluchtThe Ostflucht was a movement by residents of the former eastern territories of Germany, such as East Prussia, West Prussia, Silesia and Province of Posen beginning around 1850, to the more industrialized western German Rhine and Ruhr provinces...
- OstpolitikOstpolitikNeue Ostpolitik , or Ostpolitik for short, refers to the normalization of relations between the Federal Republic of Germany and Eastern Europe, particularly the German Democratic Republic beginning in 1969...
- OstalgieOstalgieOstalgie is a German term referring to nostalgia for aspects of life in East Germany. It is derived from the German words Ost and Nostalgie ....
(nostalgia for the former Eastern BlocEastern blocThe term Eastern Bloc or Communist Bloc refers to the former communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, generally the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pact...
, specifically for the DDR) - Quellenforschung, "research of sources", the study of the sources of, or influences upon, a literary work
- RealpolitikRealpolitikRealpolitik refers to politics or diplomacy based primarily on power and on practical and material factors and considerations, rather than ideological notions or moralistic or ethical premises...
(political science: "real politics"); usually implies the way politics really works, i.e. via the influence of power and money, rather than a principled approach that the public might expect to be aligned with a party's or nation's values, or rather than a political party's given interpretation. - Reichstag (Imperial Diet; see Reichstag building, Imperial Diet, ReichstagReichstag (German Empire)The Reichstag was the parliament of the North German Confederation , and of the German Reich ....
, and the Reichstag of the Weimar RepublicReichstag (Weimar Republic)The Reichstag was the parliament of Weimar Republic .German constitution commentators consider only the Reichstag and now the Bundestag the German parliament. Another organ deals with legislation too: in 1867-1918 the Bundesrat, in 1919–1933 the Reichsrat and from 1949 on the Bundesrat...
) - SammlungspolitikSammlungspolitikSammlungspolitik is a domestic policy of Kaiser Wilhelm II during his rule in Germany. It means 'bringing together policy', it aimed to unite the political parties and groups in favour of Weltpolitik and also diminishing the SPD, a socialist party which, at the time, was thought of as a threat of...
- UrmonotheismusUrmonotheismusUrmonotheismus or primitive monotheism is the hypothesis of a monotheistic Urreligion, from which non-monotheistic religions degenerated...
- UrreligionUrreligionUrreligion is a notion of an "original" or "oldest" form of religious tradition. The term contrasts with organized religion, such as the theocracies of the early urban cultures of the Ancient Near East or current world religions.The term originates in German Romanticism...
- Völkerschlacht — the Battle of NationsBattle of LeipzigThe Battle of Leipzig or Battle of the Nations, on 16–19 October 1813, was fought by the coalition armies of Russia, Prussia, Austria and Sweden against the French army of Napoleon. Napoleon's army also contained Polish and Italian troops as well as Germans from the Confederation of the Rhine...
- Völkerwanderung — the migration (and invasions) of the Germanic peoples in the 4th century
- WeltpolitikWeltpolitikThe "Weltpolitik" strategy was adopted by Germany in the late 19th century, replacing the earlier "Realpolitik" approach.The start of this policy was signaled in 1897 with then Foreign Minister Bernhard von Bülow stating that Germany now pursued such a policy...
— the politics of global domination; contemporarily, "the current climate in global politicsGlobal politicsGlobal politics is the discipline that studies the political and economical patterns of the world. It studies the relationships between cities, nation-states, shell-states, multinational corporations, non-governmental organizations and international organizations.It has been argued that global...
".
Military terms
- BlitzkriegBlitzkriegFor other uses of the word, see: Blitzkrieg Blitzkrieg is an anglicized word describing all-motorised force concentration of tanks, infantry, artillery, combat engineers and air power, concentrating overwhelming force at high speed to break through enemy lines, and, once the lines are broken,...
, Lightning war. Phrase invented by a Spanish journalist to describe mobile combined arms methods used by Nazis in 1939–1940. - FingerspitzengefühlFingerspitzengefühlFingerspitzengefühl is a German term, literally meaning "finger tips feeling" and meaning intuitive flair or instinct, which has been appropriated by the English language as a loanword...
(literally "finger-tip feeling", in German used to mean "empathy", "sensitivity" or "tact"): The ability of certain military commanders to understand and master a situation in detail thanks to intuition and a capability that allows having all relevant tactical information available in the mind, presumably in the form of a mental map. - Flak (Flugabwehrkanone), anti-aircraft gun (for derived meanings see under Other aspects of everyday life)
- Fliegerhorst, another word for a military airport
- KarabinerCarbineA carbine , from French carabine, is a longarm similar to but shorter than a rifle or musket. Many carbines are shortened versions of full rifles, firing the same ammunition at a lower velocity due to a shorter barrel length....
a carbine. For the climbing hardware, see carabiner above - Kriegsspiel, in English also written Kriegspiel, war game (different meanings)
- LuftwaffeLuftwaffeLuftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
, air force (WW II and later, with East Germany and the earlier German EmpireGerman EmpireThe German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
using the term LuftstreitkräfteLuftstreitkräfteThe Deutsche Luftstreitkräfte , known before October 1916 as Die Fliegertruppen des deutschen Kaiserreiches , or simply Die Fliegertruppen, was the air arm of the Imperial German Army during World War I...
instead for their air services) - PanzerPanzerA Panzer is a German language word that, when used as a noun, means "tank". When it is used as an adjective, it means either tank or "armoured" .- Etymology :...
refers to tankTankA tank is a tracked, armoured fighting vehicle designed for front-line combat which combines operational mobility, tactical offensive, and defensive capabilities...
s and other armoured vehicles, or formations of such vehicles - PanzerfaustPanzerfaustThe Panzerfaust was an inexpensive, recoilless German anti-tank weapon of World War II. It consisted of a small, disposable preloaded launch tube firing a high explosive anti-tank warhead, operated by a single soldier...
, "tank fist": anti-tank weapon, a small one-man launcher and projectile. - Strafe, punishment
- U-BootU-bootU-boot can refer to:* U-boats, military submarines operated by Germany during World War I and World War II* Das U-Boot, also known simply as U-Boot, a computer software which serves as a bootstrap loader in many embedded systems....
(abbreviated form of Unterseeboot — submarine, but commonly called U-Boot in Germany as well) - VernichtungsgedankeVernichtungsgedankeVernichtungsgedanke, literally meaning "concept of annihilation" in German and generally taken to mean "the concept of fast annihilation of enemy forces" is a tactical doctrine dating back to Frederick the Great. It emphasizes rapid, fluid movement to unbalance an enemy, allowing the attacker to...
(thought of annihilation)
Linguistics
- Ablaut
- Abstandsprache
- AktionsartAktionsartThe lexical aspect or aktionsart of a verb is a part of the way in which that verb is structured in relation to time. Any event, state, process, or action which a verb expresses—collectively, any eventuality—may also be said to have the same lexical aspect...
- Ausbausprache
- Dachsprache
- DreimorengesetzDreimorengesetzDreimorengesetz is a German term which translates to "three-mora rule." This name is given to the rule for placing the accent in a Latin word.-Where the accent falls:...
, "three-mora law", the rule for placing stress in LatinLatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and... - einzelsprachlich (belonging to a single language; in historical linguistics, referring to single dialects or branches within a language family, or a relatively recent period in language development as opposed to the proto-language stage of a family)
- Gleichsetzung, "equation" (of cognateCognateIn linguistics, cognates are words that have a common etymological origin. This learned term derives from the Latin cognatus . Cognates within the same language are called doublets. Strictly speaking, loanwords from another language are usually not meant by the term, e.g...
s, in etymologyEtymologyEtymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...
) - Grammatischer WechselGrammatischer WechselIn historical linguistics, the German term Grammatischer Wechsel refers to the effects of Verner's law when viewed synchronically within the paradigm of a Germanic verb.-Overview:...
, "grammatical alternation", a pattern of consonant alternations found in Germanic strong verbs and also in Germanic nouns - Grenzsignal, "boundary signal"
- LoanwordLoanwordA loanword is a word borrowed from a donor language and incorporated into a recipient language. By contrast, a calque or loan translation is a related concept where the meaning or idiom is borrowed rather than the lexical item itself. The word loanword is itself a calque of the German Lehnwort,...
(ironically not a loanword but rather a calqueCalqueIn linguistics, a calque or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal, word-for-word or root-for-root translation.-Calque:...
from German Lehnwort) - PrimärberührungGermanic spirant lawIn linguistics, the Germanic spirant law or Primärberührung is a specific historical instance of dissimilation that occurred as part of an exception of Grimm's law in the ancestor of the Germanic languages.-General description:...
, "primary contact", the development of certain consonant clusters (stop consonant + /t/) in Proto-GermanicProto-Germanic languageProto-Germanic , or Common Germanic, as it is sometimes known, is the unattested, reconstructed proto-language of all the Germanic languages, such as modern English, Frisian, Dutch, Afrikaans, German, Luxembourgish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, Faroese, and Swedish.The Proto-Germanic language is... - Rückumlaut, "reverse umlaut", a regular pattern of vowel alternation (of independent origin from usual ablaut patterns) in a small number of Germanic weak verbs
- Sitz im Leben (Biblical linguistics mainly; the study of PragmaticsPragmaticsPragmatics is a subfield of linguistics which studies the ways in which context contributes to meaning. Pragmatics encompasses speech act theory, conversational implicature, talk in interaction and other approaches to language behavior in philosophy, sociology, and linguistics. It studies how the...
has a similar approach) - SprachbundSprachbundA Sprachbund – also known as a linguistic area, convergence area, diffusion area or language crossroads – is a group of languages that have become similar in some way because of geographical proximity and language contact. They may be genetically unrelated, or only distantly related...
, "language union", a group of languages that have become similar because of geographical proximity - Sprachgefühl, the intuitive sense of what is appropriate in a language
- SprachraumSprachraumSprachraum is a linguistic term used to designate a geographical region/district where a language, dialect, group or family of languages is spoken. The German word Sprachraum literally means "language area"....
- sprachwirklich (said of words and structures: actually attested as opposed to e. g. merely postulated on theoretical grounds, or as opposed to artificial coinages and inventions by ancient grammarians that were never used in reality)
- SuffixaufnahmeSuffixaufnahmeSuffixaufnahme is a linguistic phenomenon used in forming a genitive construction, whereby prototypically a genitive noun agrees with its head noun...
- UmlautGermanic umlautIn linguistics, umlaut is a process whereby a vowel is pronounced more like a following vowel or semivowel. The term umlaut was originally coined and is used principally in connection with the study of the Germanic languages...
- UrheimatUrheimatUrheimat is a linguistic term denoting the original homeland of the speakers of a proto-language...
- Ursprache, "proto-language"
- WanderwortWanderwortA Wanderwort is a word that was spread among numerous languages and cultures, usually in connection with trade, so that it has become very difficult to establish its original etymology, or even its original language...
Literature
- BildungsromanBildungsromanIn literary criticism, bildungsroman or coming-of-age story is a literary genre which focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood , and in which character change is thus extremely important...
- KünstlerromanKünstlerromanA Künstlerroman , meaning "artist's novel" in German, is a narrative about an artist's growth to maturity. It may be classified as a specific sub-genre of Bildungsroman; such a work, usually a novel, tends to depict the conflicts of a sensitive youth against the values of a bourgeois society of his...
- LeitmotivLeitmotifA leitmotif , sometimes written leit-motif, is a musical term , referring to a recurring theme, associated with a particular person, place, or idea. It is closely related to the musical idea of idée fixe...
, a recurring theme - Leitwortstil
- NihilartikelFictitious entryFictitious entries, also known as fake entries, Mountweazels, ghost word and nihil articles, are deliberately incorrect entries or articles in reference works such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, maps, and directories. Entries in reference works normally originate from a reliable external source,...
, a fake entry in a reference work - Sturm und DrangSturm und DrangSturm und Drang is a proto-Romantic movement in German literature and music taking place from the late 1760s through the early 1780s, in which individual subjectivity and, in particular, extremes of emotion were given free expression in reaction to the perceived constraints of rationalism...
, an 18th century literary movement; "storm and stress" in English, although the literal translation is closer to "storm and urge". - UrtextUrtext editionAn urtext edition of a work of classical music is a printed version intended to reproduce the original intention of the composer as exactly as possible, without any added or changed material...
, "original text" - Vorlage, original or mastercopy of a text on which derivates are based
- Wahlverwandtschaft (from GoetheJohann Wolfgang von GoetheJohann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...
's Die WahlverwandtschaftenElective AffinitiesElective Affinities , also translated under the title Kindred by Choice, is the third novel by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, published in 1809. The title is taken from a scientific term once used to describe the tendency of chemical species to combine with certain substances or species in preference...
) - Q, abbreviation for Quelle ("source"), a postulated lost document in Biblical criticismBiblical criticismBiblical criticism is the scholarly "study and investigation of Biblical writings that seeks to make discerning judgments about these writings." It asks when and where a particular text originated; how, why, by whom, for whom, and in what circumstances it was produced; what influences were at work...
Mathematics and formal logic
- AnsatzAnsatzAnsatz is a German noun with several meanings in the English language.It is widely encountered in physics and mathematics literature.Since ansatz is a noun, in German texts the initial a of this word is always capitalised.-Definition:...
(lit. "set down," roughly equivalent to "approach" or "where to begin", a starting assumption) - one of the most used German loan words in the English-speaking world of science. - "Eigen-" in composita such as eigenfunctionEigenfunctionIn mathematics, an eigenfunction of a linear operator, A, defined on some function space is any non-zero function f in that space that returns from the operator exactly as is, except for a multiplicative scaling factor. More precisely, one has...
, eigenvector, eigenvalue, eigenformEigenformAn eigenform is a modular form which is an eigenvector for all Hecke operators Tm, m = 1, 2, 3, …....
; in English "self-" or "own-". They are related concepts in the fields of linear algebraLinear algebraLinear algebra is a branch of mathematics that studies vector spaces, also called linear spaces, along with linear functions that input one vector and output another. Such functions are called linear maps and can be represented by matrices if a basis is given. Thus matrix theory is often...
and functional analysisFunctional analysisFunctional analysis is a branch of mathematical analysis, the core of which is formed by the study of vector spaces endowed with some kind of limit-related structure and the linear operators acting upon these spaces and respecting these structures in a suitable sense...
. - EntscheidungsproblemEntscheidungsproblemIn mathematics, the is a challenge posed by David Hilbert in 1928. The asks for an algorithm that will take as input a description of a formal language and a mathematical statement in the language and produce as output either "True" or "False" according to whether the statement is true or false...
- Grossencharakter (German spelling: Größencharakter)
- Hauptmodul (the generator of a modular curve of genus 0)
- Hilbert's NullstellensatzHilbert's NullstellensatzHilbert's Nullstellensatz is a theorem which establishes a fundamental relationship between geometry and algebra. This relationship is the basis of algebraic geometry, an important branch of mathematics. It relates algebraic sets to ideals in polynomial rings over algebraically closed fields...
(without apostrophe in German) - IdealIdeal (ring theory)In ring theory, a branch of abstract algebra, an ideal is a special subset of a ring. The ideal concept allows the generalization in an appropriate way of some important properties of integers like "even number" or "multiple of 3"....
(originally "ideale ZahlenIdeal numberIn number theory an ideal number is an algebraic integer which represents an ideal in the ring of integers of a number field; the idea was developed by Ernst Kummer, and led to Richard Dedekind's definition of ideals for rings...
", defined by Ernst KummerErnst KummerErnst Eduard Kummer was a German mathematician. Skilled in applied mathematics, Kummer trained German army officers in ballistics; afterwards, he taught for 10 years in a gymnasium, the German equivalent of high school, where he inspired the mathematical career of Leopold Kronecker.-Life:Kummer...
) - KernelKernel (mathematics)In mathematics, the word kernel has several meanings. Kernel may mean a subset associated with a mapping:* The kernel of a mapping is the set of elements that map to the zero element , as in kernel of a linear operator and kernel of a matrix...
(Ger.: Kern, translated as core) - Krull's HauptidealsatzKrull's principal ideal theoremIn commutative algebra, Krull's principal ideal theorem, named after Wolfgang Krull , gives a bound on the height of a principal ideal in a Noetherian ring...
(without apostrophe in German) - Möbius bandMöbius stripThe Möbius strip or Möbius band is a surface with only one side and only one boundary component. The Möbius strip has the mathematical property of being non-orientable. It can be realized as a ruled surface...
(Ger.: Möbiusband) - quadratfrei
- Stützgerade
- VierergruppeKlein four-groupIn mathematics, the Klein four-group is the group Z2 × Z2, the direct product of two copies of the cyclic group of order 2...
(also known as Klein four-group) - "Neben-" in composita such as Nebentype
-
from (ganze) Zahlen ((whole) numbers), the integerIntegerThe integers are formed by the natural numbers together with the negatives of the non-zero natural numbers .They are known as Positive and Negative Integers respectively...
s
Medicine
- Anwesenheit
- Entgleisen
- Gedankenlautwerden
- Gegenhalten
- KernicterusKernicterusKernicterus is damage to the brain centers of infants caused by increased levels of unconjugated bilirubin. This may be due to several underlying pathologic processes. Newborn babies are often polycythemic. When they break down the erythrocytes, one of the byproducts is bilirubin, which circulates...
(German spelling: Kernikterus) - Mitgehen
- Mitmachen
- MittelschmerzMittelschmerzMittelschmerz is a medical term for "ovulation pain" or "midcycle pain". About 20% of women experience mittelschmerz, some every cycle, some intermittently.-Symptoms and diagnosis:...
("middle pain", used to refer to ovulation pain) - Pfropfschizophrenie
- RinderpestRinderpestRinderpest was an infectious viral disease of cattle, domestic buffalo, and some other species of even-toed ungulates, including buffaloes, large antelopes and deer, giraffes, wildebeests and warthogs. After a global eradication campaign, the last confirmed case of rinderpest was diagnosed in 2001...
- Schnauzkrampf
- Sensitiver Beziehungswahn
- SpinnbarkeitSpinnbarkeitSpinnbarkeit , also known as fibrosity, is a biomedical rheology term which refers to the stringy or stretchy property found to varying degrees in mucus, saliva, albumen and similar viscoelastic fluids...
- Verstimmung
- Vorbeigehen
- Vorbeireden
- Wahneinfall
- WitzelsuchtWitzelsuchtWitzelsucht, from the German witzeln, meaning to joke or wisecrack, and sucht meaning addiction or yearning, is a set of rare neurological symptoms characterized by the patient's uncontrollable tendency to make puns, tell inappropriate jokes and pointless or irrelevant stories at inconvenient moments...
- Wurgstimme
Philosophy
- An sich, in itself
- DaseinDaseinDasein is a German word famously used by Martin Heidegger in his magnum opus Being and Time, which generally translates to being in its ontological and philosophical sense Dasein is a German word famously used by Martin Heidegger in his magnum opus Being and Time, which generally translates to...
- Ding an sichNoumenonThe noumenon is a posited object or event that is known without the use of the senses.The term is generally used in contrast with, or in relation to "phenomenon", which refers to anything that appears to, or is an object of, the senses...
, thing in itself from KantImmanuel KantImmanuel Kant was a German philosopher from Königsberg , researching, lecturing and writing on philosophy and anthropology at the end of the 18th Century Enlightenment.... - GeistGeistGeist is a German word. Depending on context it can be translated as the English words mind, spirit, or ghost, covering the semantic field of these three English nouns...
, mind, spirit or ghost - Gott ist tot!God is dead"God is dead" is a widely-quoted statement by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. It first appears in The Gay Science , in sections 108 , 125 , and for a third time in section 343...
, a popular phrase from NietzscheFriedrich NietzscheFriedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a 19th-century German philosopher, poet, composer and classical philologist...
; more commonly rendered "God is dead!" in English. - ÜbermenschÜbermenschThe Übermensch is a concept in the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche posited the Übermensch as a goal for humanity to set for itself in his 1883 book Thus Spoke Zarathustra ....
, also from Nietzsche; the ideal of a SuperhumanSuperhumanSuperhuman can mean an improved human, for example, by genetic modification, cybernetic implants, or as what humans might evolve into, in the near or distant future...
or Overman. - Weltanschauung, calqued into English as world viewWorld viewA comprehensive world view is the fundamental cognitive orientation of an individual or society encompassing the entirety of the individual or society's knowledge and point-of-view, including natural philosophy; fundamental, existential, and normative postulates; or themes, values, emotions, and...
; a comprehensive view or personal philosophy of human life and the universe - WelträtselWorld riddleThe term "world riddle" or "world-riddle" has been associated, for over 100 years, with Friedrich Nietzsche...
, "world riddle", a term associated with Nietzsche and biologist Ernst HaeckelErnst HaeckelThe "European War" became known as "The Great War", and it was not until 1920, in the book "The First World War 1914-1918" by Charles à Court Repington, that the term "First World War" was used as the official name for the conflict.-Research:...
concerning the nature of the universe and the meaning of life - WeltschmerzWeltschmerzWeltschmerz is a term coined by the German author Jean Paul and denotes the kind of feeling experienced by someone who understands that physical reality can never satisfy the demands of the mind...
, World-weariness/World-pain, angst; despair with the World (often used ironically in German) - Wertfreiheit, Max WeberMax WeberKarl Emil Maximilian "Max" Weber was a German sociologist and political economist who profoundly influenced social theory, social research, and the discipline of sociology itself...
's postulate: statements of science should be kept separate from value judgments (value neutrality) - Wille zur MachtWill to powerThe will to power is widely seen as a prominent concept in the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. The will to power describes what Nietzsche may have believed to be the main driving force in man; achievement, ambition, the striving to reach the highest possible position in life; these are all...
, "the will to power", central concept of Nietzsche's philosophy
Physical sciences
- AnsatzAnsatzAnsatz is a German noun with several meanings in the English language.It is widely encountered in physics and mathematics literature.Since ansatz is a noun, in German texts the initial a of this word is always capitalised.-Definition:...
, an assumption for a function that is not based on an underlying theory - AntiblockiersystemAnti-lock braking systemAn anti-lock braking system is a safety system that allows the wheels on a motor vehicle to continue interacting tractively with the road surface as directed by driver steering inputs while braking, preventing the wheels from locking up and therefore avoiding skidding.An ABS generally offers...
- Aufbau principleAufbau principleThe Aufbau principle is used to determine the electron configuration of an atom, molecule or ion. The principle postulates a hypothetical process in which an atom is "built up" by progressively adding electrons...
(physical chemistryPhysical chemistryPhysical chemistry is the study of macroscopic, atomic, subatomic, and particulate phenomena in chemical systems in terms of physical laws and concepts...
) (German spelling: Aufbauprinzip) - BremsstrahlungBremsstrahlungBremsstrahlung is electromagnetic radiation produced by the deceleration of a charged particle when deflected by another charged particle, typically an electron by an atomic nucleus. The moving particle loses kinetic energy, which is converted into a photon because energy is conserved. The term is...
- Entgegen and its opposite zusammen (organic chemistryOrganic chemistryOrganic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the scientific study of the structure, properties, composition, reactions, and preparation of carbon-based compounds, hydrocarbons, and their derivatives...
) - Foehn wind, also foehn, (German spelling Föhn), a warm wind which sometimes appears on the northern side of the Alps in south Germany and Austria.
- Gedanken experiment (German spelling: Gedankenexperiment; more commonly referred to as a "thought experiment" in English.)
- GegenscheinGegenscheinThe gegenschein is a faint brightening of the night sky in the region of the antisolar point.- Explanation :Like the zodiacal light, the gegenschein is sunlight reflected by interplanetary dust...
- Gemisch (chemistry: a randomized mixture of components)
- Gerade and its opposite ungerade (quantum mechanicsQuantum mechanicsQuantum mechanics, also known as quantum physics or quantum theory, is a branch of physics providing a mathematical description of much of the dual particle-like and wave-like behavior and interactions of energy and matter. It departs from classical mechanics primarily at the atomic and subatomic...
) - HeiligenscheinHeiligenscheinHeiligenschein is an optical phenomenon which creates a bright spot around the shadow of the viewer's head. It is created when the surface on which the shadow falls has special optical characteristics. Dewy grass is known to exhibit these characteristics, and creates a Heiligenschein...
- HohlraumHohlraumIn radiation thermodynamics, a hohlraum is a cavity whose walls are in radiative equilibrium with the radiant energy within the cavity. This idealized cavity can be approximated in practice by making a small perforation in the wall of a hollow container of any opaque material...
, a radiation cavity used in thermonuclear weapons design - Kirchweger-KondensationseinrichtungKirchweger condenserThe purpose of the Kirchweger condenser was to preheat feedwater in a steam locomotive using the exhaust steam from the engine. It was invented in 1850 by Heinrich Kirchweger...
- KugelblitzKugelblitz (astrophysics)In theoretical physics, a kugelblitz is a concentration of light so intense that it forms an event horizon and becomes self-trapped: according to general relativity, if we aim enough radiation into a region, the concentration of energy can warp spacetime enough for the region to become a black...
, also a term for ball lightningBall lightningBall lightning is an unexplained atmospheric electrical phenomenon. The term refers to reports of luminous, usually spherical objects which vary from pea-sized to several metres in diameter. It is usually associated with thunderstorms, but lasts considerably longer than the split-second flash of a... - Mischmetall, alloy
- Rocks and minerals like QuartzQuartzQuartz is the second-most-abundant mineral in the Earth's continental crust, after feldspar. It is made up of a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall formula SiO2. There are many different varieties of quartz,...
(German spelling: Quarz), GneissGneissGneiss is a common and widely distributed type of rock formed by high-grade regional metamorphic processes from pre-existing formations that were originally either igneous or sedimentary rocks.-Etymology:...
and FeldsparFeldsparFeldspars are a group of rock-forming tectosilicate minerals which make up as much as 60% of the Earth's crust....
(originally Gneis and Feldspat respectively), MeerschaumMeerschaumMeerschaum , also sepiolite, is a soft white mineral sometimes found floating on the Black Sea, and rather suggestive of sea-foam, whence the German origin of the name, as well as the French name for the same substance, écume de mer.-Overview:... - Reststrahlen (residual rays)
- Schiefspiegler, special type of telescope
- Sollbruchstelle, predetermined breaking point
- SpiegeleisenSpiegeleisenSpiegeleisen is a ferromanganese alloy containing approximately 15% manganese and small quantities of carbon and silicon. Historically, this was the standard form in which manganese was traded and used in steel making...
- TrommelTrommelA trommel is a screened cylinder used to separate materials by size - for example, separating the biodegradable fraction of mixed municipal waste or separating different sizes of crushed stone....
- UmpolungUmpolungUmpolung or polarity inversion in organic chemistry is the chemical modification of a functional group with the aim of the reversal of polarity of that group. This modification allows secondary reactions of this functional group that would otherwise not be possible. The concept was introduced by...
(organic chemistryOrganic chemistryOrganic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the scientific study of the structure, properties, composition, reactions, and preparation of carbon-based compounds, hydrocarbons, and their derivatives...
) - Vierbein, and variations such as vielbein
- ZitterbewegungZitterbewegungZitterbewegung is a theoretical rapid motion of elementary particles, in particular electrons, that obey the Dirac equation...
- ZwitterionZwitterionIn chemistry, a zwitterion is a neutral molecule with a positive and a negative electrical charge at different locations within that molecule. Zwitterions are sometimes also called inner salts.-Examples:...
Politics
- LumpenproletariatLumpenproletariatLumpenproletariat, a collective term from Lumpenproletarier , was first defined by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in The German Ideology and later elaborated on in other works by Marx...
- Machtpolitik, power politics
- Putsch, overthrow of those in power by a small group, coup d'etat. (Although commonly understood and used in contemporary High German, too, the word putsch originates from Swiss GermanSwiss GermanSwiss German is any of the Alemannic dialects spoken in Switzerland and in some Alpine communities in Northern Italy. Occasionally, the Alemannic dialects spoken in other countries are grouped together with Swiss German as well, especially the dialects of Liechtenstein and Austrian Vorarlberg...
and is etymologically related to English "push".) - RealpolitikRealpolitikRealpolitik refers to politics or diplomacy based primarily on power and on practical and material factors and considerations, rather than ideological notions or moralistic or ethical premises...
, "politics of reality": foreign politics based on practical concerns rather than ideology or ethics. - RechtsstaatRechtsstaatRechtsstaat is a concept in continental European legal thinking, originally borrowed from German jurisprudence, which can be translated as "legal state", "state of law", "state of justice", or "state of rights"...
, concept of a state based on law and human rights - BerufsverbotBerufsverbotBerufsverbot is an order of "professional disqualification" under German law. Berufsverbot may be called profession ban in English.A Berufsverbot disqualifies the recipient from engaging in certain professions or activities on the grounds of his or her criminal record, political convictions or...
- ÜberfremdungÜberfremdungÜberfremdung , literally "over-foreignization", is a German-language term used in politics to suggest an excess of immigration. The word is compounded from über meaning "over" or "overly" and fremd meaning "foreign".-Political uses:...
- VergangenheitsbewältigungVergangenheitsbewältigungVergangenheitsbewältigung is a composite German word that describes processes of dealing with the past , which is perhaps best rendered in English as "struggle to come to terms with the past"...
Psychology
- Aha-ErlebnisInsightInsight is the understanding of a specific cause and effect in a specific context. Insight can be used with several related meanings:*a piece of information...
, literally aha experience, a sudden insight or epiphany, compare eurekaEureka (word)"Eureka" is an interjection used to celebrate a discovery, a transliteration of a word attributed to Archimedes.-Etymology:The word comes from ancient Greek εὕρηκα heúrēka "I have found ", which is the 1st person singular perfect indicative active of the verb heuriskō "I find"... - AngstAngstAngst is an English, German, Danish, Norwegian and Dutch word for fear or anxiety . It is used in English to describe an intense feeling of apprehension, anxiety or inner turmoil...
, feeling of fear, but more deeply and without concrete object - EigengrauEigengrauEigengrau , also called Eigenlicht , dark light, or brain gray, is the color seen by the eye in perfect darkness...
, literally "intrinsic grey", or also Eigenlicht, "intrinsic light", the colour seen by the eye in perfect darkness - Ganzfeld effectGanzfeld effectThe Ganzfeld effect is a phenomenon of visual perception caused by staring at an undifferentiated and uniform field of color. The effect is described as the loss of vision as the brain cuts off the unchanging signal from the eyes...
, from German Ganzfeld for "complete field", a phenomenon of visual perception - Gestalt psychologyGestalt psychologyGestalt psychology or gestaltism is a theory of mind and brain of the Berlin School; the operational principle of gestalt psychology is that the brain is holistic, parallel, and analog, with self-organizing tendencies...
, (German spelling: Gestaltpsychologie), holistic psychology - Merkwelt, English: "way of viewing the world", "peculiar individual consciousness"
- SchadenfreudeSchadenfreudeSchadenfreude is pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others. This German word is used as a loanword in English and some other languages, and has been calqued in Danish and Norwegian as skadefryd and Swedish as skadeglädje....
, gloating, a malicious satisfaction obtained from the misfortunes of others - Sorge, a state of worry, but (like Angst) in a less concrete, more general sense, worry about the world, one's future, etc.
- UmweltUmweltAccording to Jakob von Uexküll and Thomas A. Sebeok, umwelt is the "biological foundations that lie at the very epicenter of the study of both communication and signification in the human [and non-human] animal." The term is usually translated as "self-centered world"...
, environment, literally: "surrounding world"; in semiotics, "self-centred world" - ZeitgeberZeitgeberZeitgeber is any exogenous cue that synchronizes an organism's endogenous time-keeping system to the earth's 24-hour light/dark cycle. The strongest zeitgeber, for both plants and animals, is light...
(lit. time-giver), something that resets the circadian clock found in the Suprachiasmatic nucleusSuprachiasmatic nucleusThe suprachiasmatic nucleus or nuclei, abbreviated SCN, is a tiny region on the brain's midline, situated directly above the optic chiasm. It is responsible for controlling circadian rhythms... - WeltschmerzWeltschmerzWeltschmerz is a term coined by the German author Jean Paul and denotes the kind of feeling experienced by someone who understands that physical reality can never satisfy the demands of the mind...
, world-pain or world-weariness - WunderkindChild prodigyA child prodigy is someone who, at an early age, masters one or more skills far beyond his or her level of maturity. One criterion for classifying prodigies is: a prodigy is a child, typically younger than 18 years old, who is performing at the level of a highly trained adult in a very demanding...
, child prodigy
Sociology
- Gemeinschaft, community
- Gesellschaft, society
- Herrschaft, reign
- Männerbund
- VerstehenVerstehenVerstehen is an ordinary German word with exactly the same meaning as the English word "understand". However, since the late 19th century in the context of German philosophy and social sciences, it has also been used in the special sense of "interpretive or participatory examination" of social...
, understanding - ZeitgeistZeitgeistZeitgeist is "the spirit of the times" or "the spirit of the age."Zeitgeist is the general cultural, intellectual, ethical, spiritual or political climate within a nation or even specific groups, along with the general ambiance, morals, sociocultural direction, and mood associated with an era.The...
, spirit of the times or age
Theology
- Gattung, genre
- Heilsgeschichte (salvation history, God's positive saving actions throughout history)
- Kunstprosa, artistic prose
- Sitz im LebenSitz im LebenIn Biblical criticism, Sitz im Leben is a German phrase roughly translating to "setting in life".-Origins:The term originated with the German Protestant theologian Hermann Gunkel. The term Sitz im Volksleben was employed for the first time in 1906 and the term Sitz im Leben in 1917...
(setting in life, context)
German terms mostly used for literary effect
There are a few terms which are recognised by many English speakers but are usually only used to deliberately evoke a German context:- Autobahn — particularly common in British EnglishBritish EnglishBritish English, or English , is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere...
and American EnglishAmerican EnglishAmerican English is a set of dialects of the English language used mostly in the United States. Approximately two-thirds of the world's native speakers of English live in the United States....
referring specifically to German motorways. - Achtung — Literally, "attention" in English.
- Frau and FräuleinFräuleinFräulein is the German language honorific previously in common use for unmarried women, comparable to Miss in English. Fräulein is the diminutive form of Frau, which was previously reserved only for married women. Since the 1970s, Fräulein has come to be used less often, and was banned from...
— Woman and young woman or girl, respectively in English. Indicating marital state, with Frau — Mrs. and Fräulein — Miss; in Germany, however, the diminutive Fräulein lapsed from common usage in the late 1960s. Regardless of marital status, a woman is now commonly referred to as Frau, because from 1972 the term Fräulein has been officially phased out for being politically incorrect and should only be used if expressly authorized by the woman concerned. - FührerFührerFührer , alternatively spelled Fuehrer in both English and German when the umlaut is not available, is a German title meaning leader or guide now most associated with Adolf Hitler, who modelled it on Benito Mussolini's title il Duce, as well as with Georg von Schönerer, whose followers also...
(umlaut is usually dropped in English) — always used in English to denote HitlerAdolf HitlerAdolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
or to connote a Fascistic leader — never used, as is possible in German, simply and unironically to denote a (non-Fascist) leader or guide, (i.e. Bergführer: mountain guideMountain guideMountain guides are specially trained and experienced mountaineers and professionals who are generally certified by an association. They are considered experts in mountaineering.-Skills:Their skills usually include climbing, skiing and hiking...
, Stadtführer: city guide (book), Führerschein: driving licence, Geschäftsführer: managing director, Flugzeugführer: Pilot in commandPilot in commandThe pilot in command of an aircraft is the person aboard the aircraft who is ultimately responsible for its operation and safety during flight. This would be the "captain" in a typical two- or three-pilot flight crew, or "pilot" if there is only one certified and qualified pilot at the controls of...
, etc.) - Gott mit unsGott Mit UnsGott mit uns is a phrase commonly associated with the German military from the German Empire to the end of the Third Reich, although its historical origins are far older, ultimately tracing back to the Hebrew term Immanuel from the Bible...
(means "God be with us" in German), the motto of the Prussian king, it was used as a morale slogan amongst soldiers in both World Wars. It was bastardized as "Got mittens" by American and British soldiers, and is usually used nowadays, because of the German defeat in both wars, derisively to mean that wars are not won on religious grounds. - Hände hoch — hands up
- Herr In modern German either the equivalent of Mr. (Mister), to address an adult man, or "master" over something or someone (eg Sein eigener Herr sein: to be his own master). Derived from the adjective hehr, meaning "honourable" or "senior", it was historically a nobleman's title, equivalent to "Lord". (Herr der Fliegen is the German title of Lord of the FliesLord of the FliesLord of the Flies is a novel by Nobel Prize-winning author William Golding about a group of British boys stuck on a deserted island who try to govern themselves, with disastrous results...
.) In a religious context it refers to God. - Ich bin ein BerlinerIch bin ein Berliner"Ich bin ein Berliner" is a quotation from a June 26, 1963, speech by U.S. President John F. Kennedy in West Berlin. He was underlining the support of the United States for West Germany 22 months after the Soviet-supported East Germany erected the Berlin Wall as a barrier to prevent movement...
, famous quotation by John F. KennedyJohn F. KennedyJohn Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
. - LederhosenLederhosenLederhosen are breeches made of leather; they may be either short or knee-length. The longer ones are generally called Bundhosen....
(Singular Lederhose in German denotes one pair of leather short pants or trousersTrousersTrousers are an item of clothing worn on the lower part of the body from the waist to the ankles, covering both legs separately...
. The original BavarianAustro-BavarianBavarian , also Austro-Bavarian, is a major group of Upper German varieties spoken in the south east of the German language area.-History and origin:...
word is Lederhosn, which is both singular and plural.) - LeitmotifLeitmotifA leitmotif , sometimes written leit-motif, is a musical term , referring to a recurring theme, associated with a particular person, place, or idea. It is closely related to the musical idea of idée fixe...
(German spelling: Leitmotiv) Any sort of recurring theme, whether in music, literature, or the life of a fictional character or a real person. - MeisterMeisterMeister means master in German . The word is akin to maestro. Many modern day German police forces use the title Meister. During the Second World War, Meister was the highest enlisted rank of the Ordnungspolizei.Meister has been borrowed into English slang, where it is used in compound nouns...
— used as a suffix to mean expert (Maurermeister), or master; in Germany it means also champion in sports (Weltmeister, Europameister, Landesmeister) - Nein — no
- RausRausRaus may refer to:*Erhard Raus - German Colonel General*John Raus - US Footballer*Linda Raus - Estonian folk dancer*Raus, a king of the Hasdingi Vandals...
— meaning Out! — shortened (colloquial) (depending on where the speaker is, if on the inside "get out!" = hinaus, if on the outside "come out!" = heraus). It is the imperativeImperative moodThe imperative mood expresses commands or requests as a grammatical mood. These commands or requests urge the audience to act a certain way. It also may signal a prohibition, permission, or any other kind of exhortation.- Morphology :...
form of the German verbVerbA verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...
herauskommen (coming out (of a room/house/etc.) as in the imperative "komm' raus"!). - ReichReichReich is a German word cognate with the English rich, but also used to designate an empire, realm, or nation. The qualitative connotation from the German is " sovereign state." It is the word traditionally used for a variety of sovereign entities, including Germany in many periods of its history...
— from the Middle High German "rich", as a noun it means "empire" or "realm", cf the English word "bishopric". In titles as part of a compound noun, for example "Deutsche Reichsbahn", it is equivalent to the English word "national" (German National Railway), or "Reichspost" (National Postal Service). To some English speakers, Reich strongly connotes Nazism and is sometimes used to suggest Fascism or authoritarianism, e.g., "Herr Reichsminister" used as a title for a disliked politician. - Ja — yes
- Jawohl a German term that connotes an emphatic yes — "Yes, Indeed!" in English. It is often equated to "yes sir" in Anglo-American military films, since it is also a term typically used as an acknowledgement for military commands in the German military.
- Schnell! — Quick! or Quickly!
- Kommandant — commander (in the sense of person in command or Commanding officerCommanding officerThe commanding officer is the officer in command of a military unit. Typically, the commanding officer has ultimate authority over the unit, and is usually given wide latitude to run the unit as he sees fit, within the bounds of military law...
, regardless of military rankMilitary rankMilitary rank is a system of hierarchical relationships in armed forces or civil institutions organized along military lines. Usually, uniforms denote the bearer's rank by particular insignia affixed to the uniforms...
), used often in the military in general (Standortkommandant: BaseMilitary baseA military base is a facility directly owned and operated by or for the military or one of its branches that shelters military equipment and personnel, and facilitates training and operations. In general, a military base provides accommodations for one or more units, but it may also be used as a...
commander), on battleships and U-BoatU-boatU-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...
s (Schiffskommandant or U-Boot-Kommandant), sometimes used on civilian ships and aircraft. - Schweinhund (German spelling: Schweinehund) — literally: Schwein = pigPigA pig is any of the animals in the genus Sus, within the Suidae family of even-toed ungulates. Pigs include the domestic pig, its ancestor the wild boar, and several other wild relatives...
, Hund = dogDogThe domestic dog is a domesticated form of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and companion animal in...
, vulgarismVulgarismA vulgarism , also called scurrility, is a colloquialism of an unpleasant action or unrefined character, which substitutes a coarse, indecorous word where the context might lead the reader to expect a more refined expression.-See also:*Euphemism*Grotesque body*Ribaldry, scatology, toilet...
like in der verdammte Schweinehund (the damned pig-dog). But also used to describe the lack of motivation (for example to quit a bad habit) Den inneren Schweinehund bekämpfen. = to battle the inner pig-dog. - Wunderbar — wonderful
German terms rarely used in English
This is the unsorted, original list. If a term is common in a particular academic discipline, and there is no more commonly used English equivalent, then please move it to the list above.- AmpelmännchenAmpelmännchenis the symbolic person shown on traffic lights at pedestrian crossings in the former German Democratic Republic . Prior to the German reunification in 1990, the two German states had different forms for the Ampelmännchen, with a generic human figure in West Germany, and a generally male figure...
- Besserwisser
- Eierlegende Wollmilchsau, literally "egg-laying wool-milk-sow", a tool for many purposes
- FahrvergnügenFahrvergnügenFahrvergnügen was an advertising slogan used by the German automobile manufacturer Volkswagen in a 1990 U.S. ad campaign that included a stick figure driving a Volkswagen car....
meaning "driving pleasure"; originally, the word was introduced in a VolkswagenVolkswagenVolkswagen is a German automobile manufacturer and is the original and biggest-selling marque of the Volkswagen Group, which now also owns the Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, SEAT, and Škoda marques and the truck manufacturer Scania.Volkswagen means "people's car" in German, where it is...
advertising campaign in the U.S., one tag line was: "Are we having Fahrvergnügen yet?". Caused widespread puzzlement when it was used in television commercials with no explanation. - GastarbeiterGastarbeiterGastarbeiter is German for "guest worker." It refers to migrant workers who had moved to West Germany mainly in the 1960s and 70s, seeking work as part of a formal guest worker programme...
— a German "guest worker" or foreign-born worker - GötterdämmerungGötterdämmerungis the last in Richard Wagner's cycle of four operas titled Der Ring des Nibelungen...
, literally "Twilight of the Gods", can refer to a disastrous conclusion of events such as the defeat of Nazi GermanyNazi GermanyNazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
that had an ideology in part based on Norse mythologyNorse mythologyNorse mythology, a subset of Germanic mythology, is the overall term for the myths, legends and beliefs about supernatural beings of Norse pagans. It flourished prior to the Christianization of Scandinavia, during the Early Middle Ages, and passed into Nordic folklore, with some aspects surviving...
; an allusion to the title of the Wagner opera. - KoboldKoboldThe kobold is a sprite stemming from Germanic mythology and surviving into modern times in German folklore. Although usually invisible, a kobold can materialise in the form of an animal, fire, a human being, and a candle. The most common depictions of kobolds show them as humanlike figures the size...
— a small mischievous fairy creature, traditionally translated as "Goblin", "Hobgoblin", and "Imp"; the roleplaying game Dungeons & DragonsDungeons & DragonsDungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...
has included reptilian Kobolds (as well as creatures called "Goblins", "Imps" and "Hobgoblins" in completely separate forms) as part of the bestiary for a number of editions, including the current edition, D&D 4th Edition. Kobold is also the origin of the name of the metal cobaltCobaltCobalt is a chemical element with symbol Co and atomic number 27. It is found naturally only in chemically combined form. The free element, produced by reductive smelting, is a hard, lustrous, silver-gray metal....
. - Schmutz (smut, dirt, filth). This term is, however, particularly popular in New York, reflecting the influence of the Yiddish language.
- ... über alles (originally "Deutschland über alles" (this sentence was meant originally to propagate a united Germany instead of small separated German Territories only); now used by extension in other cases, as in the Dead KennedysDead KennedysDead Kennedys are an American punk rock band formed in San Francisco, California in 1978. The band became part of the American hardcore punk movement of the early 1980s. They gained a large underground fanbase in the international punk music scene....
song California Über AllesCalifornia Über Alles"California Über Alles" was the first single by the Dead Kennedys. The record was released in June 1979 on Optional Music with "The Man with the Dogs" as the b-side...
). This part (or rather, the whole first stanza) of the Deutschlandlied (Song of the Germans) is not part of the national anthem today, as it is thought to have been used to propagate the attitude of racial and national superiority in Nazi Germany, as in the phrase "Germany over all". - Vorsprung durch TechnikVorsprung durch TechnikVorsprung durch Technik is the main strapline, or slogan, and company ethos for the German car maker Audi. It has been used since the 1970s in Audi advertising campaigns all over the world....
('competitive edge through technology'): used in an advertising campaign by AudiAudiAudi AG is a German automobile manufacturer, from supermini to crossover SUVs in various body styles and price ranges that are marketed under the Audi brand , positioned as the premium brand within the Volkswagen Group....
, to suggest technical excellence - Zweihänder, two-handed sword
Quotations
Some famous English quotations are translations from German. On rare occasions an author will quote the original German as a sign of erudition.- Muss es sein? Es muss sein!: "Must it be? It must be!" — BeethovenLudwig van BeethovenLudwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
- Der Krieg ist eine bloße Fortsetzung der Politik mit anderen Mitteln: "War is politics by other means" (literally: "War is a mere continuation of politics by other means") — ClausewitzCarl von ClausewitzCarl Philipp Gottfried von Clausewitz was a Prussian soldier and German military theorist who stressed the moral and political aspects of war...
- Ein Gespenst geht um in Europa — das Gespenst des Kommunismus: "A spectre is haunting Europe — the spectre of communism" — The Communist ManifestoThe Communist ManifestoThe Communist Manifesto, originally titled Manifesto of the Communist Party is a short 1848 publication written by the German Marxist political theorists Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. It has since been recognized as one of the world's most influential political manuscripts. Commissioned by the...
- Proletarier aller Länder, vereinigt euch!: "Workers of the world, unite!Workers of the world, unite!The political slogan Workers of the world, unite! is one of the most famous rallying cries of communism, found in The Communist Manifesto , by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels...
" — The Communist ManifestoThe Communist ManifestoThe Communist Manifesto, originally titled Manifesto of the Communist Party is a short 1848 publication written by the German Marxist political theorists Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. It has since been recognized as one of the world's most influential political manuscripts. Commissioned by the... - Gott würfelt nicht: "God does not play dice" — EinsteinAlbert EinsteinAlbert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
- Raffiniert ist der Herrgott, aber boshaft ist er nicht: "Subtle is the Lord, but malicious He is not" — EinsteinAlbert EinsteinAlbert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
- Wir müssen wissen, wir werden wissen: "We must know, we will know" — David HilbertDavid HilbertDavid Hilbert was a German mathematician. He is recognized as one of the most influential and universal mathematicians of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Hilbert discovered and developed a broad range of fundamental ideas in many areas, including invariant theory and the axiomatization of...
- Was kann ich wissen? Was soll ich tun? Was darf ich hoffen?: "What can I know? What shall I do? What may I hope?" — KantImmanuel KantImmanuel Kant was a German philosopher from Königsberg , researching, lecturing and writing on philosophy and anthropology at the end of the 18th Century Enlightenment....
- Die ganzen Zahlen hat der liebe Gott gemacht, alles andere ist Menschenwerk: "God made the integers, all the rest is the work of man" — Leopold KroneckerLeopold KroneckerLeopold Kronecker was a German mathematician who worked on number theory and algebra.He criticized Cantor's work on set theory, and was quoted by as having said, "God made integers; all else is the work of man"...
- Hier stehe ich, ich kann nicht anders. Gott helfe mir. Amen!: "Here I stand, I cannot do differently. God help me. Amen!" — attributed to Martin LutherMartin LutherMartin Luther was a German priest, professor of theology and iconic figure of the Protestant Reformation. He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money. He confronted indulgence salesman Johann Tetzel with his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517...
- Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen: "Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent" — WittgensteinLudwig WittgensteinLudwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein was an Austrian philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He was professor in philosophy at the University of Cambridge from 1939 until 1947...
- Einmal ist keinmal: "What happens once might as well never have happened." literally "once is never" — theme of The Unbearable Lightness of BeingThe Unbearable Lightness of BeingThe Unbearable Lightness of Being , written by Milan Kundera, is a philosophical novel about two men, two women, a dog and their lives in the Prague Spring of the Czechoslovak Communist period in 1968. Although written in 1982, the novel was not published until two years later, in France...
by Milan KunderaMilan KunderaMilan Kundera , born 1 April 1929, is a writer of Czech origin who has lived in exile in France since 1975, where he became a naturalized citizen in 1981. He is best known as the author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, and The Joke. Kundera has written in... - Es lebe die Freiheit: "Long live freedom" — Hans SchollHans SchollHans Fritz Scholl was a founding member of the White Rose resistance movement in Nazi Germany.-Biography:...
See also
- List of pseudo-German words adapted to English
- List of English words of Dutch origin
- List of English words of Yiddish origin
- DenglischDenglischDenglisch or Denglish is a portmanteau of the German words Deutsch and Englisch. Used in all German-speaking and Dutch-speaking countries, it describes an influx of English, or pseudo-English, vocabulary into the German or Dutch language through travel and the widespread usage of English in...
- YinglishYinglishYinglish words are neologisms created by speakers of Yiddish in English-speaking countries, sometimes to describe things that were uncommon in the old country...
- AnglishAnglishAnglo-Saxon linguistic purism is a kind of English linguistic purism, which favors words of native origin over those of foreign origin. In its mild form, it merely means using existing native words instead of foreign ones...
Literature
- J. Alan Pfeffer, Garland Cannon, German Loanwords in English: An Historical Dictionary, Cambridge University PressCambridge University PressCambridge University Press is the publishing business of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII in 1534, it is the world's oldest publishing house, and the second largest university press in the world...
. 1994.
External links
- Dictionary of Germanisms
- User-generated collection of Germanisms, including images of spottings.
- Mathematical Words: Origins and Sources (John Aldrich, University of Southampton) See Section on Contribution of German.