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German expressions that don’t exist in English

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Re: German expressions that don’t exist in English

#21

Post by dschuetz »

It is interesting indeed to unwrap the literal meaning of the composite words in German.

I don't entirely agree on his proposition of the meaning of 'Stimmung' though. It's not just 'the voice of the situation' but rather "state of adjustment/tuning of emotions towards a situation". For instance when we [Germans] say that the "Stimmung ist getrübt" it means that most people involved have adjusted to a rather dampened mood for a particular situation. They are then not just experiencing it in a bad way, but they are also expressing their mood non-verbally.

Re: German expressions that don’t exist in English

#22

Post by EastLondonCoder »

Interestingly enough the words exists in Swedish as well, spelling is a bit different but the meaning is more or less the same:

German -> Swedish

Wehmot -> vemod

Entwicklung -> utveckling

Einsam -> ensam

Stimmung -> stämmning

Entschuldigen -> ursäkta

Aufrichtigkeit -> uppriktighet

Lebensmut -> livsmod

Ursprung -> ursprung

Liebenswürdig -> älskvärd

Note that Sinneswandel is missing not sure if there is a direct translation in Swedish

Re: German expressions that don’t exist in English

#23

Post by yokaze »

steve1977 wrote: post #9
jonnym1ll3r wrote: post #2

"Wehmut" literally: 'The courage in feeling pain'. This is powerful. I feel like this courageous curiosity has been the primary virtue or trait that I've been exploring and aiming to cultivate more than any other during the past couple of years. As a non-German speaker I'd be interested how this relates to melancholy (these to me feel like quite different emotional states).

As a native German speaker, I wouldn't translate "mut" in Wehmut as courage. Here it rather is the same as "mood" (and the English word has the same roots). Like in "Anmut", "Dehmut", "Unmut" etc. So Wehmut literally would be something like "woeful mood" and you could use it more or less synonymous with melancholia (or nostalgia for example).

To my (vague) knowledge, it is an word coined in romanticism to replace the French-rooted word Nostalgie, Schwermut was coined for Melancholie. The movement was fairly nationalistic and was unhappy with the dominance of French in high culture at that time. So they went ahead and coined "German" words were ones with French (or Latin) roots were used.

But please check/correct me on that, my memory might be betraying me here. Not even sure about the source...

Re: German expressions that don’t exist in English

#24

Post by itronitron »

larusso wrote: post #20
a_bonobo wrote: post #11

I've been struggling to find an equivalent for 'overengineered' in German - there's verschlimmbessern, a portmanteu verb of 'verbessern' (improve) and 'schlimm' (bad), it's what you use when you want to improve something but the end-product is worse. However, German tech (to me!) has a overengineering problem, not a verschlimmbessern problem, there's nothing being improved. Just look at modern German cars, impossible…

What about “vertüftelt”? “tüfteln” means to tinker around. The word means that you bring something into the state of being tinkered together or is complex.

Ingenieurvergnügen

Re: German expressions that don’t exist in English

#26

Post by turboturbo »

EastLondonCoder wrote: post #22

Interestingly enough the words exists in Swedish as well, spelling is a bit different but the meaning is more or less the same: German -> Swedish Wehmot -> vemod Entwicklung -> utveckling Einsam -> ensam Stimmung -> stämmning Entschuldigen -> ursäkta Aufrichtigkeit -> uppriktighet Lebensmut -> livsmod Ursprung -> ursprung Liebenswürdig -> älskvärd Note that Sinneswandel is missing not sure if there is a direct transl…

Same in Dutch! Weemoed, ontwikkeling, eenzaam, stemming, verontschuldigen, oprechtheid, oorsprong.

Some are missing, or at least from my vocabulary. Glad I learned something new today!

Re: German expressions that don’t exist in English

#28

Post by JumpCrisscross »

steve1977 wrote: post #13
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'd be interested how this relates to melancholy Melancholy pertains to one’s internal state. It is a state of being, and one that accepts the circumstances as they are. (It also contains notes of inevitability.) Wehmut is more active. The outcome is evitable. One accepts them, and the pain they will cause, but perseveres, usually towards a brighter outcome. At worst, it’s Sisyphean with an unknown ending.

This is not how Wehmut is used in German, sorry. As nice as it sounds. ;)

> As nice as it sounds

I’ll grant my (Austrian) mother that license, then!

Re: German expressions that don’t exist in English

#29

Post by Svip »

EastLondonCoder wrote: post #22

Interestingly enough the words exists in Swedish as well, spelling is a bit different but the meaning is more or less the same: German -> Swedish Wehmot -> vemod Entwicklung -> utveckling Einsam -> ensam Stimmung -> stämmning Entschuldigen -> ursäkta Aufrichtigkeit -> uppriktighet Lebensmut -> livsmod Ursprung -> ursprung Liebenswürdig -> älskvärd Note that Sinneswandel is missing not sure if there is a direct transl…

It's the same in Danish, and I'd imagine Norwegian too. And like Swedish, "Sinneswandel" is missing.

The Danish for "Ursprung" is »udspring«, which lit. means something more akin to 'out spring', but we do have the »ur-« prefix in Danish, meaning origin/source. So »urskov« would be the 'origin of forest', or jungle, i.e. it is the thing that it is the origin of all that.

In the same sense, you could - jokingly - making the word »urvittighed« meaning the 'original joke'. Compound nouns are extremely powerful.

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